One Piece chapter 1196 dropped officially on October 18, 2026, in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump Issue 47. Series creator Eiichiro Oda has already dropped two chapters in the month of October, but fans who were looking for more content to follow after chapter 1196 were left largely disappointed, as it has been confirmed that the series is headed for another short hiatus.
The last couple of months for the One Piece series have been quite difficult for fans to deal with due to a plethora of breaks in between the chapters. It has now been established that Eiichiro Oda has changed his publication schedule, and it is seemingly clear that the series is now going to be releasing fewer chapters per year. In other words, One Piece’s ending is being delayed even further, and the series could now last more than 10 years.
Eiichiro Oda Sets An Official New Break Schedule For The Manga
One Piece began its run in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump on July 18, 1997, in Issue 34 of the magazine. Back then, the series dropped chapters on a weekly basis, and this trend continued for over a decade. Even in the Dressrosa arc of One Piece, the series was dropping frequent chapters, with Oda only taking a break occasionally. However, since the end of the Dressrosa arc, these breaks have been slowly but surely increasing in frequency. One Piece’s Whole Cake Island arc saw Oda take a break after every 5 chapters, and this number dropped down to 4 in the Wano Country arc. Shortly after the end of Wano, Oda started taking breaks after every 3 chapters, and this publication schedule was maintained up until Elbaf.
However, the last few months have seen a surprising change in One Piece’s publication schedule. Instead of Oda going on a break every 3 chapters, the series is now taking short hiatuses with the release of every 2 chapters. Oda going on a break after 2 chapters isn’t a surprise for many fans. Often, when Oda is exhausted, he tends to go on breaks sooner than expected. However, this has never happened for a sustained period of time.
For the very first time, Eiichiro Oda is heading on breaks after the release of every 2 One Piece chapters repeatedly, which was once again emphasized with the series going on break after the release of chapter 1196 on October 18, 2026. One Piece has now released just 2 chapters over the last 3 successive months, and at this point, it can be stated with certainty that this is the new publication schedule of the series.
With a new break schedule now having been officially established, we can say with certainty that One Piece’s ending has been delayed even further because it will now take Oda even longer to finish arcs and, as such, the story as well. Fans who had any doubt about One Piece ending anytime soon would be relieved to know that the series ending has been pushed even further back, but at the same time, progress through arcs has now been slowed significantly.
Oda’s New Break Schedule Lowers Yearly One Piece Chapter Releases
Ever since Oda established his three-chapter release schedule, One Piece has been averaging slightly over 30 chapters a year. While not a regular publication schedule, the series still enjoys a lot of content every month. The break also gives Oda enough time to freshen up his ideas and recharge before he goes all in once again.
However, now that One Piece has seemingly decided to release only two manga chapters a month, the number of chapters that fans are going to be getting per year from here on out is going to drop significantly. Whereas One Piece used to get over 30 chapters a month, this figure is now going to fall below 30. Considering the fact that One Piece arcs are usually quite long, even average-sized arcs are now going to take 3 to 4 years for Eiichiro Oda to wrap up. It must also be remembered that One Piece is still nowhere close to its ending.
There are a couple of arcs for Oda to go through before the series reaches its conclusion, and that easily translates into a couple of years’ worth of content to cover, at the very least.
One Piece’s Ending Has Been Officially Delayed By Years
On December 21, 2025, at Jump Festa 2026, Eiichiro Oda already highlighted the next arc of One Piece after Elbaf. It was teased that the Straw Hat Pirates would be headed to Lodestar Island after the adventure in the Country of the Giants would wrap up. In other words, the series is still nowhere close to getting the Straw Hats to the final island, Laugh Tale, or delving into the Great War. This tells us that, at the very least, One Piece still has three to four big arcs left.
“We are heading to “that island,” which only the Pirate King was ever able to reach!!? The Man with the Burn Scar will also appear. Characters who never had the chance to meet will finally encounter each other. Those two will meet, and those two will meet as well.” — Oda’s message, Jump Festa 2026
Taking into consideration that One Piece is just dropping 25 or so chapters a month from here onwards, the series is certainly not going to end anytime soon. Even the shortest of One Piece arcs spans over 60 or so chapters at the very least. In other words, it would take Oda 3 years to cover these short arcs. There are also some massive arcs that the series still has to tackle. For instance, the Laugh Tale arc and the Final War arc are set to be absolutely massive in terms of how long they will take Oda to cover. The scale of the war that Oda himself described as absolutely massive in the past is certainly not going to be easy to wrap up even in 100 chapters, especially when taking into consideration how long the Wano arc was.
“One thing that motivates me to keep drawing One Piece is that I want to draw the final saga. The final saga will be so amazing that it makes the Marineford arc look like nothing. The Marineford arc was just a side trip to me. I didn’t expect it to be so popular.” — Eiichiro Oda, 2012
All things taken into consideration, we can say with absolute certainty that there is absolutely no way One Piece is ending before 10 years, if not even longer. If Eiichiro Oda had stuck with his 3-chapter schedule, then the manga would most certainly have finished slightly under 10 years. Now, however, the series is going to take a lot longer to finish due to a lack of yearly releases. On the one hand, this gives fans less content to get excited about each week, but on the other hand, it also allows Eiichiro Oda to rest up properly. It also gives fans more One Piece for a longer period of time, which has its own perks. In any case, all we can hope for is Oda taking the best care of his body and continuing One Piece for as long as possible.
All chapters of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece are available to read via Manga Plus and Viz Media.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
