Popularity and cultural impact In 2020, the
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise generated an estimated annual sales revenue of (). In January 2021, it was reported that Japanese sales of print books and magazines fell 1% in 2020 compared to the previous year, being the smallest per-year decline since 2006. This small decline was attributed to an increase in reading in Japan due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and the "successful boom" of the
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba manga and its related media. According to CharaBiz, a database for character licensing business in Japan,
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was the highest-grossing franchise of 2020, surpassing other well-known franchises such as
Anpanman,
Pokémon,
Mickey Mouse and
Peanuts (
Snoopy). According to a 2020 internet poll conducted by
Oricon Monitor Research, over 90% of the Japanese public is familiar with
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba; 40.5% said that they were "very familiar" and 57.3% said that they were "familiar with the name", indicating that 97.8% knew the existence of the series. Of the 1,558 respondents who said that they were "very familiar", 1,182 respondents "like" or "very liked" the series. To the question of "what part of the series do you like?", the series' story was the most popular aspect with 76.4% votes, followed by the setting with 49.3% and the relatability of the characters with 45.3% votes. 31% of the fans said that they owned the manga, and of the 66.1% of those fans said they owned every volume. According to multiple respondents, the series helped them treasure and connect with their families and allowed people of different generations to connect even in the workplace and beyond. The poll was responded from November 18–24 by 3,848 members of Oricon Monitor Research, ranging from people in their teens to their sixties. The series helped to increase internal tourism, with many tourists
traveling to spots similar to the ones featured in the series. It has been featured in Japanese high school textbooks starting in 2022. Regarding the series' sudden huge success,
Weekly Shōnen Jump editor-in-chief Hiroyuki Nakano stated that the manga sales shot up straight after its anime adaptation finished, explaining that a large number of people watched the series through streaming services after it ended rather than watching it weekly. Nakano also stated that it is harder for a manga series running in the magazine to become a hit, and
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, despite having started in February 2016, did not become a major hit until late 2019, adding that its success "hinged on
word of mouth generated after the anime's run". Nakan also said that it introduced many new people and audiences to
Jump. On December 20, 2020, at the
Jump Festa '21,
Mayumi Tanaka, voice actress of
One Pieces
Monkey D. Luffy, read aloud a message from
One Piece creator
Eiichiro Oda, in which he praised Gotouge's series, and wrote: "At
Jump,
Demon Slayer was really amazing. I enjoyed how it was able to save the feelings of so many people. Absolutely superb work. This is how I want manga to be. It touched me, somehow!".
Yusuke Murata said that the series' contribution to the industry as a whole is immeasurable, while
Gege Akutami commented that the series created many new manga fans. The prime minister of Japan,
Fumio Kishida, has remarked that he was a fan of the series, pledging that he would improve the conditions in the manga and anime industry. Several politicians even used motifs and patterns from the series in their campaigns in 2021.
Sales Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of the
best-selling manga series of all time. By February 2019, the series had 3.5 million copies in circulation worldwide; over 10 million copies in circulation by September 2019; over 25 million copies in circulation by December 2019; and over 40 million copies in circulation by February 2020. By the end of February 2020, it was revealed that the franchise has sold 40.3 million copies, making it the fifth best-selling manga in
Oricon's history. On May 6, 2020, the franchise recorded over 60 million copies in circulation (including digital copies). On May 22, 2020, it was revealed that the series has sold 60.027 million physical print copies, making it the third series in Oricon's history to sell over 60 million physical print copies. In July 2020, the franchise recorded over 80 million copies in circulation, including 71 million physical print copies sold. including 90.518 million physical print copies sold, making it the ninth
Weekly Shōnen Jump series to reach 100 million copies in circulation, after
KochiKame,
Fist of the North Star,
Dragon Ball, ''
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Slam Dunk, One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. In December 2020, the series recorded over 120 million copies in circulation (including digital copies), with 102.892 million physical copies sold, making Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba'' the second manga series to sell over 100 million copies in Oricon's records after
One Piece, which achieved this feat in 2012. In July 2025, the manga recorded over 220 million copies in circulation (including digital copies), with 164 million in Japan and 56 million overseas. In February 2020, the 19th volume sold an estimated 1.378 million copies in its first week, making
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the third manga series to have a single print volume sell more than 1 million copies in its first week, after
One Piece (45 times) and
Attack on Titan (2 times). In May 2020, the regular and limited editions of the 20th volume sold a total of 1,990,249 physical print copies. In October 2020, volume 22 ranked first in Oricon's manga sales chart for four consecutive weeks, with 326,000 physical print copies sold. In January 2021, it was reported that volumes 8, 1, and 7 of the series sold cumulative totals of 5.03 million, 5.029 million, and 5.009 million copies, respectively, being the first manga volumes to sell over 5 million copies in Oricon's history. The 23rd and final volume is the first manga volume to sell over 4 million copies in Oricon's half-year sales ranking charts since Oricon began posting rankings in 2008. By May 2021, nineteen volumes in the series had each sold over 5 million copies. The
Stories of Water and Flame volume is Shueisha's first spin-off volume with an initial print run of 1 million copies. In November 2019,
Shueisha stated that
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was their second best-selling manga in 2019, with 10.8 million volumes sold, second only to
One Piece, with 12.7 million volumes sold in the same period. Nevertheless, the series ranked first in 2019 Oricon's annual manga ranking chart, with over 12 million copies sold, while
One Piece ranked second, with over 10.1 million copies sold, making
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the best-selling manga of 2019. Oda wrote a message congratulating Gotouge' achievement.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was the first series to take all top 10 positions of Oricon's weekly manga chart. The manga occupied the entire top 10 for a full month, and it was also the first series in Oricon's history to occupy the entire top 19 weekly rank. In October 2020, the twenty-two volumes, at the time, of the series occupied the top 22 spots of Oricon's weekly manga chart. and its twenty volumes (including a special edition of volume 20) at the time, were among the top 25 best-selling manga volumes of 2020.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaibas first twenty-two volumes were the best-selling manga volumes of 2020, making the series as well the best-selling manga series in 2020, with 82,345,447 copies sold. It was the best-selling manga series in the first half of 2021, with over 26 million copies sold, while four of its volumes (volumes 18, 19, 22, and 23),
Stories of Water and Flame, and the first fanbook were among the 25 best-selling manga volumes. It was the second best-selling manga in 2021 with over 29.5 million copies sold, while volume 23 and
Stories of Water and Flame were the first and second, respectively, best-selling manga volumes. The second fanbook and four other manga volumes were among the top 30 best-selling volumes. In North America, the volumes of
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba were ranked on
Circana (formerly NPD)
BookScan's monthly top 20 adult graphic novels list since September 2019. They were also ranked on
The New York Times monthly Graphic Books and Manga bestseller list since February 2020. According to
ICv2,
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba was the best-selling manga franchise for Q4 2021 (September–December) in the United States, and it was also the second "most efficient manga franchise" for retailer bookshelves, based on the website's calculations of which manga franchises had the highest sales per volume. According to NPD BookScan, two manga volumes of
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba were ranked among the top 20 adult graphic novels list in 2020; four volumes were among the top 20 highest-selling manga volumes in 2021; three volumes and
Stories of Water and Flame were among the top 20 highest-selling manga volumes in 2022; its first volume was the best-selling manga series in 2023, with the second volume also featured on the top 20 highest-selling manga volumes. By May 2021, the Viz Media edition had over 4 million copies in circulation.
Critical response Before the premiere of its anime series adaptation, Nicholas Dupree of
Anime News Network included the series on his list of "The Most Underrated Shonen Jump Manga", and wrote: "
Kimetsu is still arguably an oddity in Jump, but it's firmly established its style that's certainly worth looking out for." Rebecca Silverman of the same website gave the first volume B− rating. Silverman praised the plot ideas and characters but had issues with its pacing. She labeled Gotouge's art as "unpolished and inconsistent," although she commended details such as those in Tanjiro and Nezuko's clothing which illustrate both the poverty and loving environment from which they come. Silverman concluded by saying that it was the work of a promising author and had positive expectations for the series' development. Leroy Douresseaux of
Comic Book Bin gave the first volume a score of 9/10. He commended the series for its "ability to convey power in simplicity," explaining that Gotouge's art is "nice" but overly detailed, and the dialogue and exposition are straightforward. Douresseaux praised its characters and recommended the series to fans of demon-fighting heroes. Nick Smith of
ICv2 gave the first volume a score of 4/5. He wrote that the story is well crafted and the characters intriguing, but the setting is "too deadly for the survival of the human race." Smith said that the artwork is good but not special and recommended the series to "teens and adults who like heroes fighting back against horrific evil." Che Gilson of
Otaku USA praised the series for its plot, action and character development. Gilson said that the art was "stiff", but that instead of looking like rough drawings or traced photo composites, the series "looks as if it were carved and printed from woodblocks." Gilson concluded: "With an engrossing plot and characters, Volume 1 builds to a cliffhanger that makes it hard to wait for the next volume." Chris Beveridge of
The Fandom Post criticized the first chapter for being "overly wordy when just the action would suffice," and ultimately called it "a work-in-progress series." After having watched the anime adaptation, Melina Dargis of the same website was so fascinated by the story and characters that she decided to go back and review the second volume of the manga. Despite knowing what would happen, Dargis wrote that it was "still such a delight to relive it again" and concluded; "It's a really great story and appeals to a wide variety of interests." Manga artists have lauded the series;
Yoshihiro Togashi wrote a praising comment featured on the of series fourth volume;
Osamu Akimoto wrote a praising comment featured on the of the series' fifth volume; and
Takayuki Yamaguchi praised the series and recommended it in a 2018 interview, around the time of its tenth volume. Author
Kinoko Nasu called it one of his favorite new manga works. Comedian and novelist
Naoki Matayoshi also praised the series. Nobuyuki Izumi of
Real Sound compared the series' premise, setting, and structure to
Hirohiko Araki's ''
JoJo's Bizarre Adventures first two parts, Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency,'' and to
Kazuhiro Fujita's
Ushio & Tora.
Accolades Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba ranked fourteenth on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2017" poll by Honya Club online bookstore. On
Takarajimasha's
Kono Manga ga Sugoi! ranking of top 20 manga for male readers, the series ranked nineteenth on the 2018 list, sixth on the 2019 list, and seventeenth on the 2020 list. On the
Rakuten Kobo 2020 First Half Ranking, the series was first in every demographic group, from male and female teenagers to older adults. In 2020, Gotouge received the second
Kodansha's
Noma Publishing Culture Award, which honors those who have contributed to "reinventing publishing". Gotouge received the award due to the franchise's sales, which have boosted the entire publishing industry from 2019 to 2020. It ranked sixteenth, along with
Chainsaw Man, on "The Best Manga 2021 Kono Manga wo Yome!" ranking by
Freestyle magazine. On
TV Asahi's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150,000 people voted for their top 100 manga series,
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba ranked second, only behind
One Piece.
Awards and nominations Light novels and other print books In 2019,
Demon Slayer: Flower of Happiness had about 210,966 copies sold, and
Demon Slayer: One-Winged Butterfly had about 196,674 copies sold. Both novels ranked third and fourth respectively in Oricon's overall
bunko ranking chart.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba overall novelization was the tenth best-selling light novel in 2019, with 407,640 copies sold. In February 2020, after a planned reprint collectively 1.16 million copies were in circulation, making the books the fastest franchise novel in Shueisha's "Jump J-Books" label to reach 1 million copies in circulation. The two light novels were the best-selling novels of the first half of 2020, collectively selling a total of 1,199,863 copies. The
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba overall novelization was the best-selling light novel of 2020, with 2,752,593 copies sold. The
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba overall novelization was the best-selling novel series in the first half of 2021, collectively selling a total of 651,358 copies, while the three novels and the
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train novelization (and its "
Mirai bunko" edition), were among the best-selling-novel volumes in the first half of 2021. The three light novels were among the top 5 best-selling light novel volumes of 2021, while the overall novelization was the best-selling light novel, with 776,320 copies sold. Four other books were among the best-selling general books of 2021: the art book,
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Koyoharu Gotouge Artbook: Ikuseisо, was third with 491,007 copies sold;
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Coloring Book: Blue was seventh, with 414,523 copies sold;
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Coloring Book: Red was ninth with 370,460 copies sold; and the anime's third official characters book was thirteenth, with 278,531 copies sold. Due to sales of the novels and the other books, Gotouge was second on the general book ranking chart of 2021, with over 1.4 million copies sold. In May 2020,
Demon Slayer: Flower of Happiness ranked tenth in a favorite children's book poll conducted by the Children's Book Election Office, among over 250,000 elementary school children. == Explanatory notes ==