Highlights
- Blue Lock Vol. 38 tops the weekly Oricon manga sales chart with 76,360 copies sold.
- The chart reflects release-cycle dynamics, while titles like SPY x FAMILY maintain momentum beyond the first-release week.
- Blue Lock’s performance highlights the rising commercial strength of sports manga within Japan’s evolving market trends.
Blue Lock Vol. 38 has taken the top spot on Japan’s latest Oricon weekly manga sales chart, displacing Case Closed (Detective Conan) Vol. 108 from the No. 1 position. Blue Lock, written by Muneyuki Kaneshiro and illustrated by Yusuke Nomura, is leading the chart for the tracking period that ends on April 27, with 76,360 copies sold.
The Oricon chart, published by Japan's leading sales-tracking research organization, tracks physical copy sales across the country each week. In the previous week's ranking, for the period ending April 20, 2026, Case Closed Vol. 108 was at the top with 181,644 estimated copies sold, and SPY x FAMILY Vol. 17 was placed in second place with 161,753 copies sold.
Blue Lock's latest volume, Vol. 38, was released on April 16 and compiles Blue Lock manga chapters 331 (Logic) to 338 (Double Jokers). The volume focuses on the U-20 World Cup, where Japan faces France.
Blue Lock Vol. 38 and Other Oricon’s Top 5 Weekly Manga Reflect Shifting Market Dynamics
Beyond the top position, the weekly top five list highlights a mix of returning and newly boosted titles. Several manga series like SPY x FAMILY have retained their positions from the past week. For the week ending on April 27, the manga ranks at No. 2 again with 66,758 copies in sales estimation.
The third place went to Hon Nara Uru Hodo (tr. Books Aplenty) Vol. 3, which was published on April 15. As a relatively newer slice-of-life title by Ao Kojima, it has sold 63,980 copies during the period.
Case Closed Vol. 108 dropped to fourth place during the latest estimation period, with an estimated 61,976 copies sold. Webnovel-based manga, Shangri-La Frontier Vol. 26, ranked in fifth position with 47,545 copies in sales.
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Vol. 48, published on April 8, retained its position within the top ten, ranking at seventh place with 24,603 copies sold. What’s noteworthy is that Oricon estimated that as of April 27, 2026, SPY x FAMILY Vol. 17, released on April 3, will have the highest number of cumulative sales, with an estimated 453,206 copies sold.
The latest Oricon ranking flip disrupts the release-window dynamics that drive Japan's weekly chart. While the newly released Blue Lock Vol. 38 soared to the top position with first-week-shipment demand, titles like SPY x FAMILY and Case Closed show sustained sales, despite new releases. Furthermore, the top five manga on ‘Oricon Japan Weekly Manga Ranking’ also establishes a shift towards thriller-mystery focused narratives.
On the other hand, the presence of Blue Lock at No. 1 reinforces the growing commercial viability of sports manga in a traditionally battle-focused manga market. The series has maintained top-tier placements on multiple occasions since Blue Lock Vol. 34, which led the weekly chart for the period ending June 30, 2025, with estimated 118,627 first-week copies sold.
