Best selling manhwa, as a ranking, has a problem: no manhwa publisher releases unit sales. Yen Press doesn't publish print runs, and WEBTOON shows views and subscribers rather than money. So this list ranks seven series by the public, checkable numbers that do exist, and says which kind each one is. Solo Leveling comes first because it clears three different bars; the rest each clear one.
These numbers don't share a scale. A view count and a bestseller chart measure different things, so read the ranking as "strength of the evidence," not a sorted sales chart. For the quality-ranked version, see our best manhwa of all time list.
| # | Series | Strongest public number | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Solo Leveling | World Webtoon Awards Grand Prize; Vol. 13 No. 1 on the NYT graphic books list; game over $100 million | KOCCA, Yen Press, Sensor Tower |
| 2 | Tower of God | 1.3 billion views, 4.2 million subscribers | WEBTOON (English) |
| 3 | Lookism | Passed 1 billion English views in January 2026 | WEBTOON via ANN |
| 4 | True Beauty | 7.5 million subscribers | WEBTOON (English) |
| 5 | The Remarried Empress | 2.6 billion views cited when Disney+ set the drama | Deadline |
| 6 | Sweet Home | Season 3 second on Netflix's non-English Top 10 | ComingSoon |
| 7 | Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint | 4.5 million subscribers | WEBTOON (English) |
WEBTOON figures are from each series' English page on October 19, 2026.
The best selling manhwa of all time, ranked by public numbers
1. Solo Leveling
Solo Leveling (나 혼자만 레벨업), Korean volume 1 cover (via AniList).
Three separate kinds of proof, which nothing else here matches. Solo Leveling took the Grand Prize at the first World Webtoon Awards, run by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism with the Korea Creative Content Agency; KOCCA's write-up credits the series with 14.3 billion views. In September 2025, Yen Press announced that Vol. 13 was "crowned #1 on the New York Times Graphic Books and Manga Bestseller List", which it called a milestone "for Korean comics as a whole." And Netmarble's game Solo Leveling: Arise, launched in early May 2024, "surpassed $100 million in gross revenue in just three months," by Sensor Tower's estimate.
Full review: Solo Leveling review.
2. Tower of God
Tower of God (신의 탑), Korean volume 1 cover (via AniList).
The biggest English WEBTOON numbers of any series we checked, and it's still updating every Monday. That's the platform's own count, not a sales figure, but it's the most direct measure of English readership a free webtoon gets.
Full review: Tower of God review.
3. Lookism
Lookism (외모지상주의), Korean volume 1 cover (via AniList).
Lookism passed a billion views on WEBTOON's English platform in January 2026, when the series was "now spanning nearly 600 episodes and attracting 3.7 million subscribers," per Anime News Network. The page has kept climbing since. It's the long-runner proof on this list: the milestone came more than a decade after the series started in 2014.
Full review: Lookism review.
4. True Beauty
True Beauty (여신강림), Korean volume 1 cover (via AniList).
The only finished series here with a billion English views, and the highest subscriber count on the list. It's also the only romance in the top half.
Full review: True Beauty review.
5. The Remarried Empress
The Remarried Empress (재혼황후), Korean volume 1 cover (via AniList).
When Deadline reported in June 2025 that Disney+ had set a live-action series, it noted the webtoon "has received over 2.6 billion views so far." That figure covers more than the English page, which is finished and sits well below a billion. The drama premieres on November 4, 2026, so whether it sends viewers back to the webtoon is still open.
More on the adaptation: The Remarried Empress Disney Plus cast.
6. Sweet Home
Sweet Home (스위트홈), Korean volume 1 cover (via AniList).
Sweet Home's proof comes from the Netflix show, not the webtoon. The third and final season reached the Global Top 10 non-English chart for the week of July 22 to 28, 2024, ranking second with 4.9 million views, per ComingSoon. The webtoon itself is finished on WEBTOON.
Full review: Sweet Home review.
7. Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint
Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint (전지적 독자 시점), Korean volume 1 cover (via AniList).
The smallest view count here at just under 600 million, but a subscriber count level with The Remarried Empress and above Lookism. It's still updating every Tuesday, so it has the most room to climb.
Full review: Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint review.
What these numbers can't tell you
View counts are easy to doubt. When an r/manhwa post said only Lookism and Solo Leveling had passed 10 billion views, one reply was simply "Sorry but 10 billion views where?. I kinda doubt that number." (r/manhwa). That doubt is fair: platform counts mix free reads, rereads and different languages, and none of them is money. That's why each entry names its number and its source instead of folding everything into one score.
Plenty of popular series, Noblesse, Eleceed and Bastard among them, aren't here because we didn't find a chart, platform count or deal figure for them in English. That's a gap in public data, not a verdict on how they sold.
Our take
If you came for one answer, it's Solo Leveling: it's the only manhwa with a print chart-topper, a government-backed award and a game revenue figure all on record. For the rest, the honest ranking is by kind of number, and the one most worth watching is Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint, the only ongoing action series here still well short of a billion.
Where to read these manhwa
- WEBTOON: Tower of God, Lookism, True Beauty, The Remarried Empress, Sweet Home and Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. The website shows only the first episodes of the finished ones; the rest are in the app.
- Solo Leveling: Tappytoon and Manta, plus Ize Press print volumes. It's also on Tapas, but Tapas closes on March 31, 2027, so buy elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best selling manhwa of all time?
No publisher releases unit sales, so nobody can say for certain. On the numbers that are public, Solo Leveling has the strongest case: a World Webtoon Awards Grand Prize citing 14.3 billion views, a No. 1 volume on the New York Times graphic books list and a game that grossed over $100 million in three months.
What manhwa has the most views on WEBTOON in English?
Of the series we checked, Tower of God, at 1.3 billion views on its English WEBTOON page as of October 19, 2026. Lookism and True Beauty are past a billion too.
Why isn't my favourite manhwa on this list?
Because we only rank series with a public, checkable number: a bestseller chart, a platform count, a revenue estimate or a streaming chart. Plenty of popular series have none of those in English.
How we checked this: on October 19, 2026 we re-read every source below and each series' English WEBTOON page. Earlier versions of this list had three errors we've fixed: Sweet Home's season 3 ranked second, not fifth; the "most expensive Korean drama" claim for The Remarried Empress had no source; and the "fewer than 100 series" context for Lookism isn't in the report we cited. Covers via AniList. Last reviewed: October 19, 2026.
Related Reading
- Best Manhwa of All Time: the quality-ranked counterpart to this list.
- Best Completed Manhwa: finished series, if you want a guaranteed ending.
- Best Manhwa for Anime Fans 2026: series that made the jump to screen.
References
- Solo Leveling wins the Grand Prize, World Webtoon Awards (KOCCA)
- Solo Leveling Vol. 13 tops the NYT bestseller list (Yen Press)
- Solo Leveling: Arise revenue surpasses $100 million (Sensor Tower)
- Lookism surpasses 1 billion views on WEBTOON's English platform (Anime News Network)
- Disney+ sets The Remarried Empress (Deadline)
- Sweet Home Season 3 on Netflix's Global Top 10 (ComingSoon)
- Tower of God on WEBTOON
