Manga, or Japanese comics, are not only a source of entertainment but also a significant market whose value is often underestimated in the West, mainly because Western fans don't really pay attention to the figures related to manga publications. But the manga market is truly exceptional in this regard, and Oda's One Piece manga is known to be the best-selling manga in history. But how does this extremely popular series compare to a globally popular book—the Bible? In this article, you'll find out whether One Piece has managed to surpass the Bible on a global scale or not.

No, One Piece hasn't surpassed the Bible. As of August 2022, One Piece has sold approximately 516.6 million copies in 61 countries worldwide, while the Bible has sold over 7 billion copies and has been fully or partially translated into over 3,000 languages. This isn't surprising, since the Bible has been present in our community for centuries, while One Piece debuted in 1997.

The rest of this article will reveal more detailed data on the figures related to One Piece and the Bible. You'll discover more details about these works, how many copies they have been sold, and how many languages ​​they have been translated into. We'll provide you with the latest available data on each of these books.

One Piece is the best-selling manga in history

One Piece is an internationally successful manga series by Japanese manga artist Eiichirō Oda, which has been broadcast since 1997 and has also been adapted into an anime series for television and film. It has been published weekly in Shūkan Shōnen Jump since 1997. Individual chapters are also published in bundled editions by Shūeisha, which has broken several publishing records, including the largest initial print run of a book in Japan and the first book to sell over three million copies.

It's a well-known fact that One Piece is the best-selling manga series in the world, and it's also one of the oldest. It's certainly the longest-running and best-selling of the "Big Three," surpassing both Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto series and Tite Kubo's Bleach. Here are the numbers:

Manga series	Author(s)	Demographic	No. of collected volumes	Serialized	Approximate sales	Average sales per volume
One piece	Eiichirō Oda	Shonen	104	1997-present	516.6 million	4.97 million
Case Closed / Detective Conan	Takao Saito, Saito Production	Her	207	1968-present	300 million	1.45 million
Case Closed / Detective Conan	Gosho Aoyama	Shonen	102	1994-present	270 million	2.65 million
Dragon Ball	Akira Toriyama	Shonen	42	1984-1995	260 million	6.19 million
Doraemon	Fujiko F. Fujio	Children	45	1969-1996	250 million	4.71 million
Naruto	Masashi Kishimoto	Shonen	72	1999-2014	250 million	3.47 million
Slam Dunk	Takehiko Inoue	Shonen	31	1990-1996	170 million	5.48 million
KochiKame: Tokyo beats the cops	Osamu Akimoto	Shonen	201	1976-2016	156.5 million	0.78 million
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba	Koyoharu Gotouge	Shonen	23	2016-2020	150 million	6.52 million
Oishinbo	Tetsu Kariya, Akira Hanasaki	Her	111	1983-2014 (on hiatus)	135 million	1.22 million
Bleach	Tite Kubo	Shonen	74	2001-2016	130 million	1.75 million
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure	Hirohiko Araki	Shōnen / Seinen	131	1987-present	120 million	0.92 million
Attack on Titan	Hajime Isayama	Shonen	34	2009-2021	110 million	3.23 million
Astro Boy	Osamu Tezuka	Shonen	23	1952-1968	100 million	4.35 million
Fist of the North Star	Buronson, Tetsuo Hara	Shonen	27	1983-1988	100 million	3.70 million
Hajime No Ippo	Georges Morikawa	Shonen	134	1989-present	100 million	0.74 million
The Kindaichi Files	Yōzaburō Kanari, Seimaru Amagi, Fumiya Satō	Shōnen / Seinen	90	1992-present	100 million	1.11 million
Touch	Mitsuru Adachi	Shonen	26	1981-1986	100 million	3.85 million

As you can see, One Piece has surpassed its closest follower by over 200 million copies, and since the manga is still being published in Japan, there is no doubt that these numbers will increase in the future.

As for availability in other languages, we must confirm that One Piece is available in 61 countries around the world, but it has not been officially translated in all of them, as some of them have the English version as the only one available. Thus, the manga has been translated into approximately 50 to 60 languages ​​worldwide.

But it's not even close to the Bible

But when you compare the Bible to One Piece, it becomes clear that the manga is far from being the most popular and best-selling religious book in world history. The Bible is present in every region of the world, no matter where you are, and even in countries that don't have a Christian majority, the Bible is present. This is why this book is so popular and so important.

One Piece Figure

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As for the Bible, it is estimated that over the years, more than 7 billion copies of the book have been sold worldwide. We don't have an exact figure, but if you look at the revenues of the last ten years (in millions) for religious books in general, you will understand why the Bible is such a lucrative product:

Year	Revenue from religious book sales (millions of dollars)	Change
2012	$576.6
2013	$572.0	-0.80%
2014	$554.0	-3.15%
2015*	$455.2	-17.83%
2016*	$493.00	8.30%
2017	$568.0	15.21%
2018	$644.9	13.54%
2019	$640.6	-0.67%
2020	$667.2	4.15%
2021	$705.10	5.68%

These books are extremely popular, and their annual revenue—for each year—is enormous. When you add these figures up, it becomes clear that One Piece has never been able to surpass the Bible. Given that the Bible is still popular and sold daily, while One Piece will eventually end, it's clear that Oda's popular manga will never surpass the Bible in this regard.

As for languages, the Bible is available, in whole or in part, in over 3,000 languages ​​worldwide, so we don't have much to add there either. The numbers are clearly on the Bible's side, but in terms of manga, One Piece stands alone.