Comichron March 2021 estimated sales chart

[JB]

With the exception of X-Men and X-Force, the sales of the rest of the regular titles is just pathetic (ignoring the #1 of course).

I don't expect sales of Children of Atom to remain high beyond issue #2.

Sadly, there's no ranking for New Mutants and Marauders in March.

That goes to show that X of Sword was a flop and there're just too many X titles floating around that is of low quality.

I always take issue with these rankings lists because they're usually not complete, understandably so. The disclaimer reads:

"Rankings are based on Comichron's retailer initial order sample and do not include reorders.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach."

That's why I personally don't care too much about these charts. Interesting to glance at, for me, but nothing more.

[Kitty&Piotr<3]

I'll be honest. I don't think my tastes are that far off from the standard reader and I haven't been really wowed in some time.

I like X-Force, Marauders, Hellions(way behind), and S.W.O.R.D well enough but I am not close to being overcome by their quality. Looking at it in that light it wouldn't be that astonishing if sales were poor considering not everyone just HAS TO know what's happening in the books like those of us on the forum.

For me, I got kinda soured during XoS and I don't remember if I was exuberant about the books before then lol

[JB]

The topic of sales came up in today's X-Men Monday so just dropping that bit here:

Jordan: Absolutely read the comics in whatever format is best for you as a reader. The digital sales are absolutely accounted for in the sales that Marvel keeps track of and looks at when Marvel is doing its accounting for what books have made money.

Two years ago, a lot of people were putting a lot of stock in the Diamond sales charts. But back when that was happening, I know people would always go, “Yeah, but that doesn’t account for this, that doesn’t account for that.” These are not 100% accurate charts. Obviously, they showed something that reflected true data, and that data was saying this book sells better than that book in American direct Diamond comic book shop sales. But those are not the same. They don’t reflect any of the digital sales. I don’t think they reflect the U.K. sales. Obviously, they don’t reflect bookstore sales and things like that for trades. All of these things get accounted for when we are internally looking at our numbers. So a digital sale counts just as much as a floppy sale.

Both are great, both are wonderful. And again, both are different. You’ll note that, or maybe you won’t, but I will tell you and then you can — if you look at the Comixology bestseller chart, it’s different than the one that we used to get from Diamond. It hasn’t been updated yet for this past Wednesday. So as of right now, the top-three sellers on Comixology are Way of X #1, X-Force #19, and S.W.O.R.D. #5. The X-Books do better, proportionally, on digital than other books. Our digital sales go up more than your average book. But all of that is considered. All of that is taken into account. Every sale counts.

[Rang10]

"Every sales count" humm seemsmore like a incentive to people continue to buy digital.

[JB]

"Every sales count" humm seemsmore like a incentive to people continue to buy digital.

Yeah the question came up because a reader only buys digital but started buying floppies thinking it would help the X-Books more. So Jordan is saying nah, all count equally.

[Rang10]

Yeah the question came up because a reader only buys digital but started buying floppies thinking it would help the X-Books more. So Jordan is saying nah, all count equally.

I put more faith on phisical, even because they have the best value for consumer. Digital is just a little extra for marvel/DC

[JB]

I put more faith on phisical, even because they have the best value for consumer. Digital is just a little extra for marvel/DC

Agreed. Physical collections of course have the power of resale so if you have the space, it's the way to go.

[cranger]

Ultimately the answer was just to appease the asker and make sure they are engaging the hobby in a way they enjoy the most. Whether they buy it digitally or physically is not going to be the deciding sale, regardless of whether Marvel makes more or less money per sale one way or the other.

[Rang10]

Ultimately the answer was just to appease the asker and make sure they are engaging the hobby in a way they enjoy the most. Whether they buy it digitally or physically is not going to be the deciding sale, regardless of whether Marvel makes more or less money per sale one way or the other.

Of course it was a fluffy answer. That is why I found it so funny
Individual sales matter very little, but more people buying on phisical is a bigger help to the books

[Grunty]

Agreed. Physical collections of course have the power of resale so if you have the space, it's the way to go.

Physical sales are also still the most important because the majority of them are the bulk sales that go to the invidual shops (usualy comic shops, but also potential larger book store chains), which in turn sell to the invidual customers.

Which means that these are the sales which get company the money straight away, before the actual releases and in predictable time patterns. Also since the shops have to buy in speculative numbers, they always buy more than they might get sold.
Which means these are the most important for the publisher's sales statistic and income ratio.

While digital or direct customer purchases will of course also have a surge on release day, their overall smaller number makes them less important for the statistic, even though they allow for a more clear perspective on how trickling in sales for books are. Hence theoretical less important than the bulk numbers of physical copies to the shops.

However this has also led to an increasing number of complaints by comic shop owners, who constantly see large numbers of books that remain unsold while pressured or at least incentivised to buy them for their overall chunk of weekly books to sell (especialy with number 1 issues), because they feel it doesn't matter for publishers if the shops can actualy sell of the issues in an reasonable capacity, as long as they got the money from the intital bulk sale to show a successfull income in their statistic.

This is also why it can be so difficult to judge how well a series is doing in the short run, since the initital release numbers are inflated and then the shops quickly start to adjust their purchases to the actual number of books they can sell to the customer.
While the digital, direct or trade purchase numbers start to trickle in long after the release day. But release day numbers are what seems to matter the most.

[Vishop]

Of course it was a fluffy answer. That is why I found it so funny
Individual sales matter very little, but more people buying on phisical is a bigger help to the books

Eh, Sales for comics have gone down by 9.6%(that too last year, its even lesser year over year) despite high GNs sales but that too far less for superhero comics. They say WB or Disney are carrying them but in reality thats not true at all. They are just carrying themselves.

[Rang10]

Eh, Sales for comics have gone down by 9.6%(that too last year, its even lesser year over year) despite high GNs sales but that too far less for superhero comics. They say WB or Disney are carrying them but in reality thats not true at all. They are just carrying themselves.

Wel there was less releases last year, many projects were delayed or cancelled. The reports have been very positive about comic book shops doing well.
My guess is that without the Diamond closing off things could have been even better

Physical sales are also still the most important because the majority of them are the bulk sales that go to the invidual shops (usualy comic shops, but also potential larger book store chains), which in turn sell to the invidual customers.

Which means that these are the sales which get company the money straight away, before the actual releases and in predictable time patterns. Also since the shops have to buy in speculative numbers, they always buy more than they might get sold.
Which means these are the most important for the publisher's sales statistic and income ratio.

While digital or direct customer purchases will of course also have a surge on release day, their overall smaller number makes them less important for the statistic, even though they allow for a more clear perspective on how trickling in sales for books are. Hence theoretical less important than the bulk numbers of physical copies to the shops.

However this has also led to an increasing number of complaints by comic shop owners, who constantly see large numbers of books that remain unsold while pressured or at least incentivised to buy them for their overall chunk of weekly books to sell (especialy with number 1 issues), because they feel it doesn't matter for publishers if the shops can actualy sell of the issues in an reasonable capacity, as long as they got the money from the intital bulk sale to show a successfull income in their statistic.

This is also why it can be so difficult to judge how well a series is doing in the short run, since the initital release numbers are inflated and then the shops quickly start to adjust their purchases to the actual number of books they can sell to the customer.
While the digital, direct or trade purchase numbers start to trickle in long after the release day. But release day numbers are what seems to matter the most.

There is also incentives on the Phisical format. Variant cover, bigger discounts if a retailers order more. You can't do this on digital edition.
Also the floppy keep having value, specially if it is a important edition like first "character appearence"

[Vishop]

Wel there was less releases last year, many projects were delayed or cancelled. The reports have been very positive about comic book shops doing well.
My guess is that without the Diamond closing off things could have been even better

It was 2019. Not 2020

[rcaguy]

I always take issue with these rankings lists because they're usually not complete, understandably so. The disclaimer reads:

"Rankings are based on Comichron's retailer initial order sample and do not include reorders.
Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach."

That's why I personally don't care too much about these charts. Interesting to glance at, for me, but nothing more.

Only figures that count are from Marvel. If they are happy with them that's all that matters

[Rang10]

It was 2019. Not 2020

OK. overall comics sales have been growing since 2011, some year here and there have been bad