A new study finds Netflix’s HEARTSTOPPER adaptation sparked global book buying boom

Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series has long been a fan-favorite webcomic for its thoughtful exploration of the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of coming-of-age as a queer teen. While Oseman first adapted Heartstopper into the graphic novel format in 2018, it wasn’t until the Netflix adaptation of Nick and Charlie’s romance arrived in 2022 that the graphic novels became a bona fide publishing sensation.

According to new research from The University of Manchester and Princeton University, Netflix’s Heartstopper adaptation turned the graphic novels into a global publishing phenomenon. The study, published on the preprint server SocArXiv, found that the April 2022 release of Heartstopper’s first season triggered a sustained spike in book sales across eleven countries, with weekly sales rising by more than 76,000 copies in the weeks following the show’s debut. Researchers pulled from international sales data, UK buyer trends, and thousands of reader and viewer reviews to trace how the show reshaped the series' reach far beyond its original graphic-novel readership.

The "Heartstopper effect" wasn't confined to English-speaking markets

The "Heartstopper effect" was not confined to English-speaking markets. The study found that the 2022 television adaptation debut triggered a dramatic and sustained rise in graphic novel sales across 11 countries, including Poland, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico, all of which saw substantial sales increases following the first season release — and in Brazil and Mexico specifically, roughly 99% of those sales came from translated local-language editions. That's a telling detail: streaming success doesn't automatically convert to book sales unless the translation and retail infrastructure is already in place to catch it. 

"What is striking is that the same story travels across very different countries, but it does so through local infrastructures," said Kristopher Velasco, assistant professor of sociology at Princeton. "Translation, retail channels and media visibility all matter for whether a screen adaptation turns into sustained book demand."

Medium impacts how Heartstopper audiences discuss it

One of the study's more interesting threads is how differently audiences talked about Heartstopper depending on the medium. Viewers discussing Netflix's Heartstopper series leaned heavily into themes of LGBTQ+ visibility and personal recognition, seeing themselves reflected onscreen. Book readers, meanwhile, framed the series more as something to recommend, gift, and pass along.

Adaptations, the researchers suggest, don’t just find new audiences—they change how those audiences read and talk about the story. "The same story means different things in different media settings," said Dr. Francesco Rampazzo, lecturer in social statistics and demography at The University of Manchester. "On screen, Heartstopper was often discussed as a moment of visibility and recognition. In book reviews and buyer data, it also appears as something to buy, recommend, gift and pass on."

That gifting behavior shows up clearly in the UK data. While nearly two-thirds of UK buyers were between 13 and 24 years old (i.e, the target audience), around a quarter of graphic novel purchases were made for someone else — parents, grandparents, and other relatives buying the books for younger family members, according to reader reviews cited in the study. Most UK buyers said they'd discovered the series through the TV adaptation first.

"The Netflix series did not simply amplify an existing audience," said Dr. Rampazzo. "It brought in new readers and changed how the books traveled, from a specialist graphic-novel readership into mainstream young-adult, retail and family purchase contexts."

Ntflix's Heartstopper enters its final phase

The findings land at a critical moment for the franchise. Heartstopper’s sixth and final graphic novel volume hit shelves July 2, 2026, and the feature-length finale, Heartstopper Forever, is set to premiere on Netflix on July 17, capping off a two-week "Heartstopper Summer" rollout that also includes a companion podcast and a digital album. In addition, Netflix is releasing a behind-the-scenes documentary about the series, Heartstopper: Ending on a Hi, which drops July 24. Researchers say the series' conclusion offers a rare natural experiment: a chance to see whether the audiences built through streaming keep showing up for the books once the screen story ends or whether the book-buying boom was tied specifically to the show's momentum.

“The final book and the Netflix film give us a rare opportunity to observe the end of a cultural cycle,” said Dr. Rampazzo. “We can see whether the audience built through streaming translates into one final book-market surge, and whether the story continues to bring new readers back from screen to page.”

Either way, Dr. Rampazzo's team argues the bigger takeaway isn't just about one series. It's a case study in how adaptation reclassifies a story — moving Heartstopper out of the specialist graphic-novel shelf and into mainstream YA, family, and gift-giving territory, one translated edition at a time.