Popular K-Webtoons... Also Capturing the Publishing Market

Domestic webtoon platforms such as Naver and Kakao are rapidly expanding their influence worldwide, including in North America, Europe, and Japan. After introducing the new genre of webtoons to countries familiar with published comics, webtoons are also gaining popularity in the publishing market.

According to Circana, a U.S. market research firm, the sales volume of comics in North America for May shows that Kakao Entertainment's "Solo Leveling" (hereinafter Solo Leveling) Volume 6 ranked first in the "Original Graphic Novel" category, selling 6,379 copies throughout May. This tally only includes 'digital comics,' which are scanned print books viewed on digital devices such as PCs.

In the "Original Graphic Novel" category, Solo Leveling volumes 1 through 6 all ranked within the top 20. Naver Webtoon’s "Lore Olympus" also appeared among the top ranks. Volume 1 of Lore Olympus sold 2,362 copies in May, ranking 9th. Volumes 2 and 3 also made it into the top 20.

The North American market has traditionally been dominated by Japanese manga and superhero stories like Superman. However, since the entry of Korean webtoon platforms, webtoons have begun to challenge the dominance of manga and superheroes.

The top seller in the "Superhero" category in May was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin," with sales of about 6,700 copies, not far from Solo Leveling. The top seller in the "Japanese Manga" category was Volume 34 of "My Hero Academia," which sold about 27,000 copies. Japanese manga remains very popular. However, considering that webtoons have been in the North American market for less than 10 years, the fact that sales volumes of Japanese works and webtoon print editions are similar within the top 10 indicates that webtoons have taken root in the market at a remarkably fast pace.

The Naver Webtoon artists' autograph session at the 'Amazing Festiveng 2023' held in Paris, France.

The popularity of webtoons has led to continued love calls from the overseas publishing industry.

Naver Webtoon signed over 60 webtoon publishing contracts worldwide by last year. The number of overseas contracts doubled compared to the previous year. On the 26th of last month, they formed a publishing partnership with Michel Lafon, one of France’s largest independent publishers. Through this collaboration, they plan to publish popular Naver Webtoon titles such as "Admission Mercenary" and "Marry My Husband" starting in October.

Japan, the world’s largest market for published comics, is also turning its attention to webtoons. Recently, major publishers such as Shueisha announced plans to enter the webtoon business. Kakao Piccoma operates "Piccoma," the number one manga platform in Japan. This means there are many opportunities to collaborate with local publishers entering the webtoon business.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.