The manga was nominated for the 8th Manga Taishō in 2015. It was nominated for the 40th Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen category in 2016. Before the anime adaptation's premiere, manga author Masashi Kishimoto praised Kōhei Horikoshi's work, believing it would be a success overseas; Horikoshi, meanwhile, has cited Kishimoto's Naruto series as a primary source of inspiration.
Volume 1 reached the 7th place on the weekly Oricon manga chart with 71,575 copies sold. It sold out almost immediately on its first printing. Volume 2 reached the 6th place, with 167,531 copies and, by January 18, 2015, had sold 205,179 copies. As of March 2017, there were over 10 million copies of My Hero Academia in circulation. As of August 2018, the manga had over 16 million copies in print. As of December 2018, the manga had over 20 million copies in print.
The story has been noted to take inspiration from elements in superhero comics, such as the aesthetics of its characters.
Alex Osborn of IGN gave the anime series positive marks, saying "The first season of My Hero Academia delivers thirteen episodes of fantastic action, elevated by a heartfelt story that's wrapped around a core cast of memorable and relatable characters." Osborn went on to state that the villains were underdeveloped.
The manga won the Sugoi Japan Award in 2017. It also won the "Japan Expo Awards" in the same year.
Due to the popularity of the series, characters of My Hero Academia were used to promote the Marvel Studios film Avengers: Infinity War.
