I'm not in America: is "X-Men" still a bestselling title? How many copies?

[Mutant 77]

I'm not located in America so I don't know.

1- Were the X-Men successful in the Nineties and 2000s? And now, in the 2010s?

2- How many copies? Are the X-titles bestsellers among the Marvel publications?

3- Which single X-title is more successful anyway?

[FUBAR007]

The answers you seek can be found here:

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales.html

[Mutant 77]

The answers you seek can be found here:

http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales.html

Thank you so much!

[Nazrel]

Thank you so much!

Those only represent wholesale sales to comic shops, are not representative of end sales; a changing market has many people picking up trades from books stores and digitally, which are in no way represented in that data.

[Mutant 77]

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that in 2000-2018 X-Men did fairly well in terms of sales, despite Marvel's internal boycott (because their "dispute" over movie rights). Especially in 2000-2010, I think that the X-Men titles were still great sellers, and it seems to me astonishing, because they were fighting against the hidden ban and conspiracy. Am I right?

[yogaflame]

Overall the X-Men still do okay, but they are a shadow of their former glory. In the old days Uncanny sold multiple hundreds of thousands of issues every month. X-Men #1 (1991) still holds the record for most issues sold after all these years(somewhere between 6-8 million copies). Almost anything with an "X" on the cover sold over 100k, supporting a whole line of at least 5 team books.

In the modern era sales of 20-30k are more usual, and titles are relaunched every year or so for artificial #1 boosts. Compared to something like Batman, X-Men has certainly lost market share over the years, and is at it's lowest relative position since the 60's lackluster original run.

[Digifiend]

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that in 2000-2018 X-Men did fairly well in terms of sales, despite Marvel's internal boycott (because their "dispute" over movie rights). Especially in 2000-2010, I think that the X-Men titles were still great sellers, and it seems to me astonishing, because they were fighting against the hidden ban and conspiracy. Am I right?

You're not. Any notion of the X-Men being downplayed in favour of other properties (Avengers and Inhumans) only applies from 2012 onwards. In short, after Disney bought Marvel.

[The Kid]

Overall the X-Men still do okay, but they are a shadow of their former glory. In the old days Uncanny sold multiple hundreds of thousands of issues every month. X-Men #1 (1991) still holds the record for most issues sold after all these years(somewhere between 6-8 million copies). Almost anything with an "X" on the cover sold over 100k, supporting a whole line of at least 5 team books.

In the modern era sales of 20-30k are more usual, and titles are relaunched every year or so for artificial #1 boosts. Compared to something like Batman, X-Men has certainly lost market share over the years, and is at it's lowest relative position since the 60's lackluster original run.

Batman is pretty much an anomoly though. Compared to other books/franchises, X-Men is still healthy although it's not obviously not as big as it was in its heyday.

[jebsib]

It's funny how the core X-Titles were pretty much always consistent #1 or top two for 20 years… until Grant Morrison's deconstruction. That really was a line in the sand, love him or hate him. From a commercial standpoint, the line has always tried to recapture their former bestselling glory post 2001.

[cranger]

You're not. Any notion of the X-Men being downplayed in favour of other properties (Avengers and Inhumans) only applies from 2012 onwards. In short, after Disney bought Marvel.

It's funny how the core X-Titles were pretty much always consistent #1 or top two for 20 years… until Grant Morrison's deconstruction. That really was a line in the sand, love him or hate him. From a commercial standpoint, the line has always tried to recapture their former bestselling glory post 2001.

Hopefully the OP has the information they were looking for as this train is about to plunge off the bridge... but there was a change in Marvel once they saw how well the movies were doing at other studios and were putting together plans to make their own. There was definitely a push to make Avengers the main franchise. Not that pushing the Avengers, or any book, to increase sales is a bad thing, but House of M was the transition from X-events being the universe altering stories to the Avengers being the characters featured in the universe altering stories (and Decimation was horrible for X-book creativity.) Sure, X-Men still had crossovers within their own titles, but they had nothing to do with the wider Marvel Universe and the main events rarely cared about the X-Men.

[The Kid]

Hopefully the OP has the information they were looking for as this train is about to plunge off the bridge... but there was a change in Marvel once they saw how well the movies were doing at other studios and were putting together plans to make their own. There was definitely a push to make Avengers the main franchise. Not that pushing the Avengers, or any book, to increase sales is a bad thing, but House of M was the transition from X-events being the universe altering stories to the Avengers being the characters featured in the universe altering stories (and Decimation was horrible for X-book creativity.) Sure, X-Men still had crossovers within their own titles, but they had nothing to do with the wider Marvel Universe and the main events rarely cared about the X-Men.

The Avengers started becoming the team in the Marvel Universe around 2004 when Disassembled happen. Right after that, Bendis became the writer and Spider-Man and Wolverine both joined the team pretty much making it the biggest A-List team in terms of names. Two years later, Civil War pretty much solidified Iron Man and Captain America as the two most important characters in the 616. It's easy to think that's how it always was but that event to me is when it felt like those two were the biggest players in the entire universe. Movies eventually came out and that was that but yes, the Avengers were starting to get a major push in the comics a good several years before the MCU began

[cranger]

The Avengers started becoming the team in the Marvel Universe around 2004 when Disassembled happen. Right after that, Bendis became the writer and Spider-Man and Wolverine both joined the team pretty much making it the biggest A-List team in terms of names. Two years later, Civil War pretty much solidified Iron Man and Captain America as the two most important characters in the 616. It's easy to think that's how it always was but that event to me is when it felt like those two were the biggest players in the entire universe. Movies eventually came out and that was that but yes, the Avengers were starting to get a major push in the comics a good several years before the MCU began

Probably a better summary, for sure. House of M was trying to have both franchises elevate each other, and Decimation was trying to put Morrison's genie back in the bottle, but it feels like things were changing shortly after, definitely by Civil War the writing was on the wall.

[Mutant 77]

The Avengers started becoming the team in the Marvel Universe around 2004 when Disassembled happen. Right after that, Bendis became the writer and Spider-Man and Wolverine both joined the team pretty much making it the biggest A-List team in terms of names. Two years later, Civil War pretty much solidified Iron Man and Captain America as the two most important characters in the 616. It's easy to think that's how it always was but that event to me is when it felt like those two were the biggest players in the entire universe. Movies eventually came out and that was that but yes, the Avengers were starting to get a major push in the comics a good several years before the MCU began

I understand...

[yogaflame]

It's funny how the core X-Titles were pretty much always consistent #1 or top two for 20 years… until Grant Morrison's deconstruction. That really was a line in the sand, love him or hate him. From a commercial standpoint, the line has always tried to recapture their former bestselling glory post 2001.

I mean, that's true though. Also coincides with the Fox X-Men movie being released.

It would be awesome to see the X-Men return to their former glory, both in the comics and in mass appeal. With their movie rights being absorbed by Disney, putting everything back into relative alignment, we may be on the verge of another great renaissance for the franchise. It certainly is in need of it. If the MCU can knock it out of the park with them on film, maybe they can get refocused again(with better comics, new cartoons/video games) and become relevant once more.

[Grey]

Tips

1) if you want to see how Xmen fared amongst marvel’s stable of other properties, look at their rankings, NOT the actual sales figures

2) if you want to see how the comic market is doing in general, look at sales figures

So many people see low sales and equate it to Xmen sucking. Well. That’s not necessarily true. If the numbers are bad but they still rank above other marvel properties, then they are doing well in the market as it currently exists... It’s just the market itself that’s bad. (Of course low sales and a high ranking doesn’t necessarily mean a book is great. Just some ways to interpret the data in general).