Summary
Line Manga became Japan's highest-earning app in May 2024, surpassing rivals such as Piccoma and Fate/Grand Order. Successful manhwa titles on Line Manga like “Remarried Empress” earn over 100 million yen monthly. The manhwa platform is gaining popularity in Japan, challenging manga and potentially leading to more anime adaptations.
WebtoonJapan's sister platform, Line comics, just became the highest-grossing platform of the month in Japan, and its success may be a sign that manhwa really is surpassing manga. While Piccoma has been dominating the international market for a while now, Line Manga is slowly gaining traction in Japan and its latest milestone proves exactly which manhwa is becoming more popular than manga in Japan.
According to data posted on X by MangaMoguraRE, Line Manga took the top spot as the highest-grossing app in Japan in May for the first time in four years. Initial data generated by Data.AI shows that Line Manga brought in $46.1 million in revenue, surpassing international manga giant Piccoma and even popular gacha games like Fate/Grand Order and Honkai : Star Rail.
While Japanese publishers like Shueisha try to capitalize on the webtoon craze through initiatives like JumpToon, manhwa platforms like Piccoma, Webtoon, and Line Manga are making the most of their strong start. and continues to grow in popularity. Webtoon already has a strong foothold in the West, and Naver's other subsidiary, Line Manga, could also seriously compete with Kakao's Piccoma in Japan.
Line Manga's Success Reveals Most Popular Manhwa in Japan
Only the Empress's remarriage was successful both inside and outside Japan
Line Manga largely owes its latest success to a series of extremely popular titles such as The Queen's Remarriage, Teenage Mercenaries, Bride of the Dragon King, A Man's Man and Vi savior of the sacred bloodline, each of them earn more than 100 million yen per month on sales in Japan. Of these titles, only Savior of Divine Blood is a Japanese webtoon and is licensed in English starting June 2024.
Interestingly, the most popular manhwa in Japan on Line Manga is an equal mix of fantasy, romance, drama, and action. However, of these, only The Remarried Empress has enjoyed significant popularity outside of Japan. The popular historical romance manhwa has gained about 435 million views, 35.9 million likes, and 3.4 million subscribers on Webtoon, while the rest lag far behind.
Overall, although manga has been an untouchable giant in Japan for decades, manhwa, with its bright, accessible colors and unique storytelling, is poised to challenge for the throne. Luckily, this will lead to more manhwa being adapted into anime as spectacular as Solo Leveling in the near future.
Source: MangaMoguraRE/X
