One Piece Reaches 500 Million Copies in Circulation, Wins Guinness World Record

[This article was initially published on August 2 and has been updated with the Guinness World Record announcement]

With the release of Volume 103, it was confirmed that One Piece has now reached over 500 million copies in circulation worldwide, making it far and away the bestselling manga series ever.

The news of One Piece’s latest milestone was spotted by anime insiders and reporters online, including @WSJ_manga who shared the news via Twitter.

The Twitter post by @WSJ_manga did not mention exactly where the announcement of this circulation milestone was made.

But based on the image in the post, the over 500 million circulation milestone was revealed in Volume 103 of the manga.

Take note, circulation is the term used instead of sales, meaning it won’t be accurate to claim that One Piece has “sold” 500 million copies. Instead, circulation means that 500 million copies of the manga have been distributed worldwide.

Following this new milestone, One Piece staff shared on Twitter that the series renewed its Guinness World Record of being the "Comic Book Series with the Most Copies Published by a Single Author."

According to info from Guinness World Records, the series has reached 416,566,000 copies in circulation in Japan and over 100 million outside Japan.

Even if this isn’t exactly a “sales” number, One Piece is still the bestselling manga in history. Even before reaching over 500 million copies in circulation, the series is already the top-selling manga.

For context, the second highest-selling manga is either Golgo 13 or Dragon Ball. While there are no official numbers of circulation for these titles, it is believed that both manga have around 300 million copies in circulation.

Aside from being the top-selling manga of all time, One Piece is also among the longest-running series. The manga was created by Eiichiro Oda, and it began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump back in July 1997.

The manga continues serialization today, and it has since expanded into a massive franchise, with a long-running TV anime adaptation, fifteen movies, and a range of video games.

With the manga being over two decades old now, series creator Oda confirmed that the series’ story is in the final stretch. The series might even end in three years.

Later this week, the fifteenth film in the series – One Piece Film: Red – will release in Japanese cinemas. A release in other countries is also scheduled for Fall 2022.