Which is more popular? Manga or Comics

Manga, and it's not even close. Even when I mention the word "comic" to my friends, they immediately think about manga instead of western comics. I have about 200 class mates (not actually in the same class, just same year), and only 3 of them have read western comics including me (not sure how deep they dived into comics). I know like 50 of them read manga, and they even have their own manga club.

I think comics are more popular in mainstream name/brand recognition and tv/film franchises but manga has more actual readers.

Kill the weebs

the only Manga/Anime character that even comes close to the same level of popularity as Batman/Spider-Man/Superman is Goku.

Comics are vastly more popular/easily recognized

Manga.

I reckon kids nowadays don't even read comics. Their familiarity with comic book characters probably come from movies.

Plus, manga is more popular in China. This fact alone makes everything else irrelevant.

For my country and probably entire continent, definitely Manga.

In total readers I’m pretty sure manga worldwide blows comics out of the water.

Manga as a product you can buy and read has been way more popular than comic books for quite some time. Comic characters and lore however is way more popular than the Manga one.

Pretty much what the very second comment on this thread says: some iconic characters, such as Batman, Supes, Flash, Thor, Wonder Woman, Hulk, Iron Man, Wolverine, Captain America and others have been one of the most recognizable characters on this planet for tens of years. However, imo there are much more manga than comic readers overall.

but ur a weeb tho

At the moment, Manga by far, it's hard to find one teenager/young adult now who hasn't known about Goku, Naruto, Luffy, Light, etc. and then say "what comic characters do you know without looking at the movies" and most would probably stare at you blank.

Not really. Don’t let my presence in bleach and naruto threads fool you.

ive only really followed those 3(including NNT) manga series and was done with it for the most part like 2 years ago.

The rest is just the occasional NNT chapter.

So yeah, all you weebs can go die?

no u

Manga annihilates comics in terms of number of people reading the books. Very few people reads comics, most people think of movies when they hear comics, not the books.

I feel like Manga is more popular by quite a bit. Comics as whole are just a lot harder to get into due to decades worth of continuity

spiderman/batman popularity>>>Naruto/goku/ichigo popularity

so yeah comics are more popular, but i prefer manga

Manga outsells comics in the US, so I think that sums it up really

Manga. Comic characters and franchises are more profitable in America because of merchandise and movies, but Japanese comics outsell American comics in the US IIRC.

Comic characters are more well known

But manga have wayyyyyyyy more readers than comic

Manga are more popular then comics in every country in the world including the United States.

Manga

manga are better now.

Sales: Manga stomps

Icons: Comics stomp

Manga.

You can find a lot of people in every countries read manga but you can't find a lot of people read comics in asian.

Why does people think Manga sells better than Comics worldwide? That's not really true, Manga doesn't sell very well outside of Japan and especially not in western countries, i am pretty sure Comics sells better worldwide. Comics are a lot more iconic and make more money compare to Manga and more popular in real life, you can barely find people to talk about Manga real life.

Comics

lol what? Anyway see the sales..you will get your answer. Comic aren't incredibly popular, it's the brands like spidey,Batman,superman, avengers etc who are famous due to other medias [especially movies, and the 70s-0s cartoon influence, which had a worldwide popularity back then]. The Comics itself are not that popular outside of US, and even in US they are not that big anymore, french and some other European comics are popular in their own right these days in their homeland, but not outside]. Meanwhile Manhwas , korean mangas basically also pretty much falls into the Manga culture and are growing rapidly in popularity in digital medium. In reality let's see almost half of my close friends watch Anime, and then half among them read manga. Only one guy reads both manga and western comics. Now in my college there's a comic/art club or something like that. I went there once and all they had in their collection were Mangas and some self made comics. Back in the day I used to buy my marvel/dc comics from nearby book stores. Nowadays they don't sell any. Comics are losing popularity no wonder. Btw they don't sell mangas either. I have to always read them on pirated sites since I got into manga in highschool, and have read only one comic since then.

Manga's been dominating in both average sales and high end sales for ages now. Even in US last year Manga sold more than DC,marvel,dark horse,image etc, 28% market share of manga , compared to 12% of comics in U.S., which is like the Capital of western comic culture

Can't speak for other countries, but for mine, it's Manga in a massive mismatch.

Manga make more money in Japan compare to comics in USA. Manga currently make a bit over 3 billion USD worldwide per year, and only less than 20% are coming from outside of Japan. Comics currently make over 1 billion USD per year in North America alone, and roughly 50% of comics are sold outside of North America. Which means manga make more money in total because Japanese spent more money on manga than Americans on comics, but comics generally sells better outside USA compare to manga outside Japan.

Korean manga and Chinese manhwa aren't Japanese manga, they are very different and you can't lump them together. It also doesn't matter how many friends you have are manga readers, maybe it's because you don't talk to people who read comics.

And manga definitely doesn't sell better than comics in USA, not even close actually. Manga make about 40 million USD per year on average in USA and comics make at least more than 500 million USD in USA. It's funny that you claim US comics only have 12% market share in USA when just Marvel and DC comics have at least more than 60% market share, if manga have 28% and US comics only have 12% then what the hell are the rest 60%? That doesn't even make sense.

Also, Manga have been consistently selling worse each year while comics are selling better each year. Manga used to sell more than 5 billion USD 15 years ago and now only 3 billion USD, comics used to sell less than 800 million USD in North America 10 years ago and now more than 1 billion USD. So comic industry isn't dying at all, they're actually doing better than before according to data, if the trend continues comics could probably outsell manga in the future.

Manga is more popular (My Hero Academia, One Piece, Dragon Ball, One Punch Man, Demon Slayer, Boruto, Attack on Titan, etc.) Comics are more famous (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Joker, Catwoman, Lex Luthor, etc.)

Manga may be better now, but comics at their prime still stomp. :)

I have doubts about those figures since individual sales doesn't justify them at all. Pretty sure you included juvenile fiction and comics from all around the world together. US comics sales nowhere near as much worldwide as Japan, unless you are talking about comics from different countries. French comics dominates in french, chinese in, china, indian in india etc..how is it fair to lump all them together against just japanese manga..Now compare US comics vs japanese Manga in their own homelands..That should tell the overall popularity easily

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1090528/manga-sales-us/#:~:text=comics%20and%20graphic%20novels%20U.S.%202019&text=Between%20January%201%20and%20May,comic%20and%20graphic%20novel%2

Last year Manga in US grew 3 times more than US comics and graphic novels combined..lol. Juvenile fiction still top the growth rate for obvious reason..no doubt.

Or you can do it the simple way.. Compare top 10 Selling Manga worldwide from last 5 years to Top 10 selling Comics worldwide from last years. You will notice 2 things..First is the huge difference in sales and the second one is the rate of growth..both in manga's favour. The decline in sells of manga in last decade that you are talking about is nothing to worry. If you actually did your research you should have known. That was an inevitable reform that happened in the market because of some Japanese govt policy. It was ought to help the market in the long term and the popularity of manga has steadily increased ever since.

@sixpathsofcapra:

No, i'm only talking about USA comics published by Marvel, DC, Image, and other smaller publishers. You're the one who claimed manhwa are also manga and compare them to just USA comics. How good manga sell in Japan is irrelevant to other countries, so that doesn't mean they're more popular than comics in other countries. USA comics make roughly 1 billion USD outside of North America while manga make less than 500 million USD outside of Japan, which is why comic characters are more iconic despite making less money in total compare to manga. The majority of manga sales come from within Japan, which is a problem with all Japanese media.

The growth rate of manga and comics doesn't prove anything, 16% of 40 millions is like 6 millions, and 5% of 500 million is like 25 millions. Comics still sell much better than manga in USA, not to mention comics have been around longer in USA than manga so the growth is obviously going to be lower.

Manga is consistently selling worse than before, sometimes the numbers grow back a bit but it's still worse in general and not just temporarily. I've never seen anyone talk about some policy in Japan that cause manga sales to decrease. It's most likely because people spent more money on other stuffs instead of buying manga. Also, one single comics series usually don't last as long as one manga series. That's why manga title sales look a lot better compare to comics title sales, but comparing sales per volume or all sales combine it's much closer.

Manga >>. Been that way for a while now.

Even tho I don't like it

Manga has taken over for awhile now...

and this is in US..loool the statistic clearly do not justify your emotion based arguments

Not only more popular but overall better.

Factually speaking, manga sells roughly three times as much as western comics on an annual basis.

Nowadays, manga is more popular.

Comic was popular at least 10 years ago.

Literally manga, it’s undeniable.