With 85 million elapsed copies, the sector beat records, to the point that a book sold in four is a BD. The mangas saw their sales double in one year, and now represent 55% of the comics purchased.
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That should console comics authors. While the Festival of Angoulême, originally planned from 27 to 30 January was postponed because of the health restrictions, the annual balance sheet published on Thursday, January 27 by the GFK Institute demonstrates a brilliant health of the sector. With 85 million copies sold (+ 60% compared to 2020) and 890 million euros of sales (+ 50%), the BDs now represent a book sold in four, a level never reached before.
Unlike the vast majority of the cultural industry sectors, which have severely suffered from the health context, this sector has greatly benefited from the pandemic: “There was already significant growth in 2020 despite confines, shows Camille Oriot, Consultant GFK Market Intelligence Books. It seems that the scarcity of available leisure offers has allowed the French to devote more time to reading. ”
” Big boost “
This record growth is largely widened by the non-standard manga success, whose sales have doubled compared to 2020 (+ 107%). These now represent one in two BDs, making these series from Japan the first segment of the sector. Moreover, if the new album of Asterix, released in October 2021, occupies the first place with more than 1.5 million sold copies, the TOP 5 is completed by four mangas, sold to more than 200 000 copies each.
The adventures of Naruto, the most famous Ninja of the literary genre, occupy three places in the top 10. “The manga has a very positive trend since 2015, but we were surprised by the extent of growth” , explains Camille Oriot. “The Culture Pass gave a big boost, even if the rise would have been strong in all cases.”
Youth BD, conducted by the Deadly Series Adele, represent 21% of the copies sold, while gender Bds account for 20% and that COMICS complete the table with 4% of sales. In addition, if Asterix has long been an indispensable locomotive for the market, this is no longer the case today, the sector with the same growth with or without the sales of the little Gaulois: “In recent years, the market of The BD emancipates asterix and manages to thrive independently of the series based on new titles that emerge “, Camille Oriot analysis.
Comics now occupy a central place in the literature sector. With 24% of the copies sold, they represent the second segment of the literary industry, just behind the general literature (25%) and in front of the youth books (22%). In 2021, they will have seduced one third of the book buyers, 7.2 million French.