Gosho Aoyama, born in Tottori Prefecture in 1963, did not become a household name overnight, but his 1994 series Detective Conan, known as Case Closed in many territories, has transformed him into one of the wealthiest manga creators working today.
Multiple rich‑list style rankings of manga authors frequently place Aoyama in the upper tier, with recent estimates clustering around a net worth of roughly 50 million dollars, largely attributable to his work on Detective Conan.
The scale of that success starts with print. Detective Conan passed 250 million copies in circulation worldwide by 2021 and climbed to around 270 million copies by early 2023, placing it among the best-selling manga series of all time.
Industry coverage notes that this figure includes unsold copies in circulation, but even with that caveat, hundreds of millions of volumes tied to a single author translate into massive royalty potential over three decades of publication.
Several pop culture and entertainment finance pieces highlight that Aoyama’s estimated 50 million dollar fortune comes largely from manga sales alone, with Detective Conan cited as the primary engine of that wealth.
Those same articles often list him alongside creators associated with franchises like Dragon Ball and Attack on Titan, underscoring just how valuable a long-running mystery series can become when it sustains consistent readership for decades.
This wealth is not only about the raw number of volumes sold. Case Closed has been serialized since 1994, which means Aoyama has benefited from multiple generations of readers, reprints, box sets, and digital editions across changing formats.
Each new story arc and anniversary campaign encourages older fans to upgrade collections and new fans to start from volume one, quietly reinforcing that royalty stream year after year.
Long-running TV, Hit Films, And A Franchise That Refuses To Slow Down
Print success laid the foundation, but Detective Conan’s true financial weight shows up once television and film are added to the equation.
The TV anime began airing in 1996 and has continued for well over a thousand episodes, supported by a steady flow of specials, spinoffs, and related content that keep the brand on television schedules and streaming platforms.
While exact creator participation in TV revenue depends on contracts, such longevity signals a franchise that broadcasters and sponsors consider commercially reliable, which in turn boosts the value of Aoyama’s underlying rights.
The theatrical side is even more striking. Detective Conan has received an annual feature film since the late nineties, and recent entries have broken franchise and national records.
Box office trackers show that the 2024 film Detective Conan: The Million Dollar Pentagram ended its run as Japan’s highest-grossing film of that year, taking in around $ 110 million domestically.
The 2025 follow-up, Detective Conan: One Eyed Flashback, topped that opening and set a new series record with a three-day debut of about 24.1 million dollars in Japan alone.
Cumulative franchise data paints a picture of an enduring theatrical powerhouse.
Aggregated box office records list multiple Detective Conan movies among the strongest performers, with several crossing significant revenue thresholds, and one recent entry, Black Iron Submarine, ranking among the highest-grossing Japanese films worldwide for 2023.
For Aoyama, every successful film reinforces the visibility of his characters and story world, helping drive more manga sales, merchandise, and international licensing, even if film revenue shares are filtered through a complex production committee system.
Detective Conan (Credit: Netflix)
Spinoffs also play a role in this financial story. Detective Conan has inspired several side manga series, such as Police Academy Arc, Hanzawa and Zero’s Tea Time, all of which have received anime adaptations of their own.
These projects widen the universe, create new entry points for viewers, and provide additional licensing material, which collectively strengthen the franchise and help extend the commercial lifespan of Aoyama’s work far beyond a typical hit manga’s cycle.
Merchandising and tie-ins further amplify the income potential. While detailed numbers are rarely public, the sheer visibility of Detective Conan across toys, stationery, apparel, and themed events suggests a robust licensing ecosystem that relies on Aoyama’s characters and concepts.
When combined with ongoing broadcast exposure and film campaigns, this constant presence in everyday products turns Conan and his cast into enduring cultural icons, locking in demand for new material and preserving catalog value for older content.
Why Aoyama’s Fortune Still Has Room To Grow
Calling Aoyama’s fortune “finished” would ignore how active and profitable Detective Conan remains three decades after its debut. The series is still running in Weekly Shonen Sunday, with new manga volumes regularly hitting shelves and appearing on sales charts.
Ongoing publication means royalty inflows do not simply rely on backlist performance, but also on fresh content that can be promoted alongside each new film or collaboration.
Recent box office reports strongly suggest that the film series has not yet peaked. The trajectory from The Million Dollar Pentagram to One Eyed Flashback indicates growing audience appetite, with each new release pushing to outperform the last in opening weekend earnings.
Industry coverage notes that this momentum positions Detective Conan as one of Japan’s most reliable theatrical brands, and that kind of consistency can support higher licensing fees, stronger international distribution, and more ambitious crossovers in the coming years.
Global recognition also matters for net worth. Case Closed volumes are officially sold in at least 25 countries, and overseas fans increasingly access both manga and anime through legal streaming and digital platforms.
As more services compete for established Japanese franchises, long-running series with extensive backlogs like Detective Conan gain leverage because they can anchor dedicated channels, curated collections, and event marathons built around Aoyama’s work.
Analysts who rank the richest manga writers often stress how Detective Conan’s steady sales and multi-format reach help justify that 50 million dollar estimate, even compared with newer titles that generate intense but shorter-lived hype.
The series shows how a patient, serialized mystery, backed by a relentless schedule of television episodes and annual films, can grow far beyond niche genre status and become a revenue machine resilient to trends and market swings.
As long as Aoyama chooses to continue his story and production committees keep investing in fresh adaptations and movies, the financial case around Detective Conan seems unlikely to cool down.
Ongoing circulation growth, rising box office ceilings, and expanding global access all point toward a franchise still climbing, not coasting, which means that the “massive wealth” behind Detective Conan may yet turn out to be only the midpoint of Gosho Aoyama’s success story.
Yoshihiro Togashi’s name tends to spark two reactions among fans: admiration for his storytelling and frustration with Hunter x Hunter’s breaks, yet his bank account looks very stable despite the irregular schedule.
Entertainment and pop culture wealth rankings consistently place him in the upper tier of manga creators, with several outlets estimating his net worth around thirty million, while others stretch that figure toward the mid thirty million range.
Those estimates are not official financial disclosures, but they line up with the scale of his catalogue. Hunter x Hunter has over eighty-four million copies in circulation worldwide as of mid 2022, and that number continues to move upward as new print runs and digital editions roll out.
Before that, Yu Yu Hakusho moved around seventy-eight million copies according to rich list breakdowns, giving Togashi two long-running, heavily merchandised shonen hits under the same career.
Hunter x Hunter began serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1998 and, despite long gaps, remains a pillar name for Shueisha’s catalog.
Each new chapter batch that returns from hiatus quickly climbs sales charts when compiled into tankobon volumes, as seen with Volume 38, which ranked among the top ten best-selling manga volumes of 2024 in Japan according to Oricon-based reports shared by fans.
That kind of rapid sell-through helps explain why a series that rarely publishes for full years at a time still supports a multi-million dollar net worth for its creator.
Royalty structures for manga vary, but industry commentary and comparative pieces on wealthy mangaka suggest a broad pattern where hit authors earn significant shares from volume sales and licensing, even when new output slows.
Togashi benefits from decades of backlist sales across both Hunter x Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho, and that backlist becomes particularly valuable when fresh marketing pushes or anniversary campaigns bring old arcs back into the spotlight.
Double Anime Runs, Global Streaming, And The Franchise Money Machine
Hunter x Hunter’s earning power does not stop at printed pages, and this is where Togashi’s royalties get interesting. The series received a sixty-two-episode anime adaptation from Nippon Animation that aired from 1999 to 2001, followed by OVAs that continued the story.
A decade later, Madhouse launched a full reboot in 2011 that ran for 148 episodes and adapted much more of the manga, gaining near-universal critical praise and a long tail on services like Toonami and streaming platforms.
Having two major television versions broadens the audience and gives licensors more flexibility when selling the brand, which can mean more licensing-related revenue tied to Togashi’s creations, even if the exact contractual breakdown is not public.
The 2011 series in particular is frequently cited as one of the best shonen anime runs of its era, which helps keep Hunter x Hunter trending on recommendation lists and social media years after its finale.
Streaming and international distribution amplify this effect. Hunter x Hunter has been licensed in North America and other regions for both manga and anime, and the 2011 series aired on Adult Swim’s Toonami block from 2016 to 2019 while also appearing on major streaming platforms.
That exposure feeds right back into book sales and merchandise, since new viewers often move to the manga when they reach the end of the anime, especially with arcs that have not been animated yet.
Merchandise and media franchise rankings hint at the broader money trail.
While Hunter x Hunter does not sit at the very top of global franchise revenue lists alongside giants like Pokémon or Dragon Ball, it appears regularly in discussions of strong mid to upper-tier shonen properties, supported by figures, apparel, games, and collaborations.
Each of those product lines depends on Togashi’s characters and concepts, helping to sustain his income even during years with no new chapters.
Hiatuses often become a talking point themselves, which paradoxically keeps the brand in circulation.
Hunter x Hunter (Credit: Netflix)
News around health updates, return announcements, and volume launches tends to trend across fan communities, and Volume 38’s performance in 2024 showed that pent-up demand can translate into major first-week sales when the series finally resurfaces.
For a creator with an already sizable net worth, that pattern allows royalties to spike periodically while the backlist continues its slower but steady march.
Royalties, Health Struggles And What The Earnings Future Looks Like
From a financial perspective, that health narrative has shaped the series release pattern, but has not destroyed its commercial value, because the existing body of work is considered dense, re-readable, and tonally distinct from many peers.
Recent circulation comparisons underline that Hunter x Hunter still sits in heavyweight company.
Popverse coverage on Jujutsu Kaisen’s hundred million copy milestone notes that Gege Akutami’s series has surpassed Hunter x Hunter’s circulation, yet still frames Togashi’s manga as one of the big modern shonen titles that newer hits measure themselves against.
Separate reporting on Kinnikuman passing eighty-five million copies points out that Hunter x Hunter held a similar scale of circulation, reinforcing how valuable Togashi’s series remains even as newer names overtake it numerically.
Net worth rankings, such as those compiled by DualShockers and various anime finance blogs, typically place Togashi around seventh or so among the richest manga authors, with estimated wealth between thirty and thirty-five million dollars tied to roughly 78 million Yu Yu Hakusho copies and 84 million Hunter x Hunter copies.
Short format content and social posts that list “top richest mangaka” also repeat a thirty million ballpark estimate for him, suggesting a broad consensus at that level, even if the exact number cannot be verified.
The 2020s have shown that Hunter x Hunter can still move serious units whenever it comes back. Volume 38’s strong debut and its top ten standing in Japan’s 2024 volume charts highlight how the hunger for new material remains high despite long pauses.
Announcements about the manga’s return in late 2024 drew immediate attention across social platforms, indicating that any future collected volumes are likely to perform strongly and feed another round of royalty inflows.
For Togashi, that combination of enduring fan loyalty, a massive backlist, two successful anime adaptations, and ongoing merchandise potential provides a cushion that most creators dealing with serious health issues rarely enjoy.
The current thirty to thirty-five million net worth estimates may already reflect peak earnings from the most active years, but every new volume, streaming deal, or licensing push around Hunter x Hunter keeps the meter from standing still, turning even a famously hiatus-heavy series into a long-term royalty engine.
