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Manga is booming, but Weekly Shonen Jump's print circulation just hit a historic low. Here's why

The iconic manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, has slipped below 1 million copies in circulation for the first time ever.

Shocked Goku Face — Image credit: Toei Animation

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Fri Aug 28 2026

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The manga and anime industries are both growing. That is the message we keep hearing, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t major changes and difficulties for those industries. Weekly Shonen Jump, the iconic manga magazine that has published hits like Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto, has found itself in a historic sales slump this year.

That comes from a report by the Japan Magazine Publishers Association (JMPA). Their print circulation figures for the period of April to July 2026 reveal that Weekly Shonen Jump’s print circulation for those four months was below 1 million copies. For comparison, the magazine peaked in 1994 when it reached 6 million copies in circulation.

This is the first time that Weekly Shonen Jump has fallen below 1 million copies since the current reporting methods were adopted in 2008. It was reportedly the last Japanese magazine with a circulation of over 1 million. It comes after many anime industry veterans worried that there weren't as many hit Weekly Shonen Jump titles that have international appeal.

The main reason for this is the shift toward digital manga distribution, which has increased steadily in recent years. The Shonen Jump+ app, which publishes most of the titles in Weekly Shonen Jump, surpassed 30 million users in October 2025, so many of the traditional customers that would have purchased the magazine are reading their favorite titles on the app.

Another thing that is less obvious to fans overseas is how the changing Japanese retail landscape has impacted magazine purchases. Many fans traditionally buy Weekly Shonen Jump at local convenience stores, but these stores are slowly dropping magazines from their offering because of rising transport and production costs. This has made Weekly Shonen Jump more difficult to get, which will obviously impact sales.

The important thing is that Weekly Shonen Jump, despite the slumping sales, isn’t dying; it is just adapting to a changing market that is skewing more towards digital manga.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included...