Japan is the world’s 12th biggest country in terms of global population with 123 million residents but it leads Press Gazette’s ranking of the biggest circulation newspapers in the world.
According to the latest available data, The Yomiuri Shimbun is the highest circulation newspaper in the world with a daily circulation of 6.2 million for its morning edition.
It claims a further 1.5 million circulation per day for its evening edition, citing ABC-audited circulation figures for 2023.
The Yomiuri Shimbun says its “creed” is as follows: “Pursue freedom and accountability. Promote humanism based on individual dignity and basic human rights. Contribute to the peace and prosperity of Japan and the world on the basis of internationalism. Live up to expectations of our readership by way of impartial and truthful news reporting along with courageous and responsible expression of views.”
Asahi Shimbun, also published in Japan, is in second place with 3,568,000 million copies for its morning edition (and 1.1 million copies per day for its evening edition).
India-based Dainik Bhaskar is a whisker behind Asahi Shimbun on 3,567,000 copies per day according to the latest local ABC data available for the second half of 2022.
The only other newspaper around the world which is believed to circulate three million copies per day or more is The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.
It claims a combined daily and international circulation of around three million (also widely cited by other sources such as State Media Monitor).
All the other newspapers in Press Gazette’s top ten biggest newspapers in the world ranking are either from India or Japan.
Given India’s huge population of 1.5 billion people it is unsurprising that it has so many titles on the list.
Japan’s high newspaper circulation appears to be due to a heavily ingrained culture of daily newspaper reading based around home delivery of morning and evening editions.
Newspaper circulations are falling steadily in India and Japan, as elsewhere in the world, but less dramatically and from a far higher starting point.
According to Guinness World Records, Yomiuri Shimbun sold more than ten million copies of its morning edition in 2010 and 3.5 million of the evening edition (citing Japan ABC).
Out of date figures cited on World Atlas suggest USA Today would make the top ten list with daily circulation of more than four million copies.
In fact, the biggest selling UK and US newspapers are a long way outside the global top ten.
The Daily Mail is the top-selling UK national newspaper with print sales of 627,000.
The top-selling print newspaper in the US is the Wall Street Journal with average daily sales of 473,000.
USA Today’s average print sale is just over 100,000 copies per day.
Other newspapers sitting well outside the top ten include:
Bild (German’s top-selling daily newspaper) with daily circulation under one million
The Sun (once one of the biggest-selling newspapers in the world) no longer publishes sales figures but is believed to sell around 600,000 copies per day
Leading daily in Indonesia Kompas claims a print circulation of around 300,000
Top-selling newspaper in Pakistan, Daily Jang, claims circulation of 700,000 copies per day during the week and 875,000 on Sundays.
According to a Press Gazette ranking based on Similarweb figures, Yahoo News in Japan is the most popular news website in the world in any language, with 920 million monthly visits. It is followed by Brazil’s Globo on 795.7 million visits in May.
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