How many girls does the main character conquer?

Question

In the manga The World God Only Knows, how many girls does the main character actually conquer after all 268 chapters?

Answer 1

13 - 18, depending on what you count as a conquest.

The wiki front page lists 18 girls as “captured targets”.

Thirteen girls were “conquered” according to the initial setup: there was a hole in their hearts, Keima romanced them, the hole was filled and the Loose Soul left to be captured by Elsie in her bottle.

1. Ayumi Takahara
2. Mio Aoyama
3. Kanon Nakagawa
4. Shiori Shiomiya
5. Kusunoki Kasuga
6. Chihiro Kosaka
7. Jun Nagase
8. Tsukiyo Kujo
9. Minami Ikoma
10. Sumire Uemoto
11. Nanaka Haibara
12. Yui Goidou
13. Hinoki Kasuga

As for the rest:

• Tenri Ayukawa was never really “conquered”. She was already in love with Keima, and she never had a Loose Soul; she was pursued by mistake by Nora and Ryou. She was the host of the goddess Diana from her first appearance.
• Rieko Hinaga had a Loose Soul in her, but Keima didn’t romance her; Elsie convinced it to leave because Rieko was too old to have children.
• Akari Kurakawa is actually the demon Rimyuel, and never succumbs to Keima’s romantic advances.
• Urara Shiratori does get romanced by Keima, but there’s no Loose Soul involved. The Jupiter Sisters story arc at the end of the manga where she appears has a completely different plot structure.
• Kaori Yuuzaki is more of a villain who Keima defeats than a “conquest target”.

Five of the “conquered” girls were “reconquered” during the Goddesses Arc to bring out their hosted goddess:

1. Kanon Nakagawa, host of Apollo
2. Tsukiyo Kujo, host of Vulcan
3. Shiori Shiomiya, host of Minerva
4. Yui Goidou, host of Mars
5. Ayumi Takahara, host of Mercury

Though Kanon comes straight to Keima, so there wasn’t much effort there.

Keima also “reconquers” Chihiro because he isn’t sure whether she or Ayumi is the host of Mercury. While doing this, he discovers that Chihiro had already fallen in love with him on her own, even before the first “conquest”.

Haqua, Chihiro, Tenri, and Diana fall in love with Keima without any effort on his part, so these don’t quite count as “conquests” either. Nor would Elsie’s sisterly feelings of devotion.

So the final count is:

• 13 unambiguous “conquests”
• 1 Loose Soul exorcism without a romantic “conquest” (Rieko)
• 1 romantic “conquest” without a Loose Soul exorcism (Urara)
• 1 attempted romantic “conquest” which failed, of a wrongfully chosen target (Akari)
• 5 “reconquests” to awaken a goddess
• 4 girls who fall in love with Keima on their own accord
• 1 girl who develops feelings of sisterly devotion towards Keima on her own accord.