It’s official official. Direct Market comic book sales fell year-to-year for the first time since 2011, with 2017 finishing up about 10% off from 2016.
According to figures released by Diamond Comic Distributors Friday morning, DC Comics led the Direct Market in dollar share, powered by the two best-selling comic books of the month – Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Doomsday Clock #2 and Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Dark Nights: Metal #4 – and four other Top 10 titles.
Marvel Comics, which released the other four Top 10 titles including Matthew Rosenberg and Leinil Yu’s Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey #1 (ranked #3), led the Direct Market in unit share.
Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga Volume 8 from Image Comics was December’s best-selling graphic novel.
Sales of comic books and graphic novels in December were down 14.57% in dollars and 23.23% in units versus December 2016. That finalized the first year-to-year decline in sales since 2011, with 2017 finishing up down 10.09% in dollars and 9.86% in units against 2016.
The December 2017 Market Share, Comparative Sales Data, and New Titles Shipped charts, along with Top 10 Comic Books and Top 10 Graphic Novels charts follow below.
TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS:
RETAIL MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
DC ENTERTAINMENT: 34.54%
MARVEL COMICS: 33.80%
IMAGE COMICS: 8.69%
IDW PUBLISHING: 3.92%
DARK HORSE COMICS: 2.69%
BOOM! STUDIOS: 2.28%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT: 2.08%
ONI PRESS: 1.00%
VIZ MEDIA: 0.96%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT: 0.96%
OTHER NON-TOP 10 9.08%
UNIT MARKET SHARE
PUBLISHER SHARE
MARVEL COMICS: 38.81%
DC ENTERTAINMENT: 37.65%
IMAGE COMICS: 7.20%
IDW PUBLISHING: 2.92%
DARK HORSE COMICS: 2.06%
BOOM! STUDIOS: 1.98%
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT: 1.84%
VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT: 1.08%
ARCHIE COMIC PUB: 0.71%
TITAN COMICS: 0.67%
OTHER NON-TOP 10: 5.07%
COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS
DOLLARS UNITS
DECEMBER 2017 VS. NOVEMBER 2017
COMICS
-16.13% -14.05%
GRAPHIC NOVELS
-21.95% -10.88%
TOTAL COMICS/GN
-18.11% -13.77%
TOYS
-33.23% -30.05%
DECEMBER 2017 VS. DECEMBER 2016
COMICS
-16.54% -24.11%
GRAPHIC NOVELS
-10.17% -13.37%
TOTAL COMICS/GN
-14.57% -23.23%
TOYS
-27.60% -37.11%
FOURTH QUARTER 2017 VS. THIRD QUARTER 2017
COMICS
-2.41% -5.19%
GRAPHIC NOVELS
8.49% 7.61%
TOTAL COMICS/GN
0.82% -4.24%
TOYS
9.14% 2.15%
FOURTH QUARTER 2017 VS. FOURTH QUARTER 2016
COMICS
-13.90% -19.53%
GRAPHIC NOVELS
-1.77% -7.71%
TOTAL COMICS/GN
-10.37% -18.66%
TOYS
-15.67% -24.40%
YEAR 2017 VS. YEAR 2016
COMICS
-10.40% -9.69%
GRAPHIC NOVELS
-9.38% -11.86%
TOTAL COMICS/GN
-10.09% -9.86%
TOYS
-12.55% -19.90%
DC Finishes 2017 Strong With Comic Sales: SEE ARTICLE