Nisekoi began as a one-shot manga published in Shueisha's seasonal Jump Next! magazine in early 2011, which received high acclaim compared to other one-shots published alongside it, leading to its serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump later that year.

Before creating Nisekoi, author Naoshi Komi went through a period without a serialized work following the end of his manga Double Arts; his editor suggested he try romantic comedy again, drawing on his experience with the one-shot 'Koi no Kamisama'.

In its initial concept stage, Nisekoi's story was going to involve the main characters being forcibly paired up at a 'romance school', and at one point during development the setting was considered as a fantasy world.

In 2015 Nisekoi surpassed Ichigo 100% to become the longest-running romantic comedy series in Weekly Shōnen Jump history, both in number of chapters and volumes, ending its serialization after 4 years and 9 months and 229 chapters.

By April 2018, the manga's collected volumes had sold over 12 million copies, having already passed 5 million copies by volume 12 and 10 million by volume 23.

The character Kirisaki Hana is explicitly modeled after Revy (Rebecca Lee) from Black Lagoon according to creator Naoshi Komi, and she is even voiced by the same voice actress, Megumi Toyoguchi, who played Revy.

In the spinoff manga Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan, a character remarks that he was 'always choosing between Onodera and Makura', referencing Nisekoi's heroine Kosaki Onodera.

The anime adaptation ended partway through the manga's story, concluding without resolving the central mystery of who the girl from Raku's childhood promise really was, leaving the anime's story arc incomplete compared to the manga.