X-Sales Watch, 2k23 FoX edition

[Alex_Of_X]

ngl, I love a sales chart. Spent many i day staring at the Comichron rundowns. I'm feeling an unfilled niche on the board, so I felt like sneaking in and starting up an ongoing sales thread. Here's to the second leg of 2023; hope our fave books survive the experience!

For starters, I'll be using ICv2 rankings. They survey a selection of comics shops for sales to customers over give or take a calendar month. Details here: https://icv2.com/articles/markets/vi...mics-june-2023

For the broader top 200 I'll use the ICv2 rundown provided by comicbookrevolution.com, who lets me keep on keeping on without paying ICv2 for premium access. Details here: https://www.comicbookrevolution.com/...ales-rankings/

For today, X-pals, lets do May and June.

May X-books

11 X-Men #22

15 Immortal X-Men #11

25 Wolverine #33

33 X-Men Red #11

39 X-Men Before The Fall Sons of X #1

45 Storm #1

57 X-Force #40

61 Rogue & Gambit #3

91 Sins of Sinister Dominion #1 (Resolicitation; was #17 in April)

103 Deadpool #7

138 Deadpool #6 (Resolicitation; was somewhere in the #61-#72 range in April)

150 X-23: Deadly Regenesis #3

166 New Mutants Lethal Legion #3

175 X-Men #21 (Resolicitation; was #7 in April)

176 X-Men 1991 #1 Facsimile Edition Gatefold

193 Bishop War College #4

198 Betsy Braddock Captain Britain #4

Unranked: X-Cellent #3

[Alex_Of_X]

June X-books

9 X-Men #23

17 Deadpool: Badder Blood #1

19 Immortal X-Men #12

32 Wolverine #34

36 X-Men Before the Fall Mutant First Strike #1

40 X-Men Red #12

51 X-Men Before The Fall Heralds of Apocalypse #1

62 X-Force #41

75 Rogue & Gambit #4

95 X-23: Deadly Regenesis #4

98 Deadpool #8

126 New Mutants Lethal Legion #4

129 Storm #2

135 Bishop War College #5

136 Betsy Braddock Captain Britain #5

138 Deadpool #7 (Resolicitation; was #103 in May)

163 Storm #1 (Resolicitation; was #45 in May)

173 X-Men #22 (Resolicitation; was #11 in May)

186 The X-Cellent #4

Books launched halfway thru the month, i.e. the most likely to sell more past the survey cutoff: Betsy Braddock Captain Britain #5, X-Force #41, Deadpool #8, Storm #2, 51 X-Men Before The Fall Heralds of Apocalypse #1.

Takeaways:

-Ongoing are going strong
-Red is waning a bit
-Adjectiveless enjoyes a resolicit bump every month, likely around 10'000 copies
-Deadpool looks dire, but only because they keep releasing it on last week of the month
-Liefeld still a draw, i guess lmao
-Sales for minis are very release day sensitive: look at how X-23 sold in May with a May 31 release date, and how it jumped up in charts when the next issue came out June 14th.
-By the same token, Before the Fall: Apoc likely sold on par with First Strike. We'll know for sure in July

[cranger]

I am not going to stop anyone from scratching the itch but I am going to let them know these charts are flawed for several reasons (e.g., small sample size, report range cuts off sales data for end of month titles, no actual sales numbers) and should just be ignored.

[Ambaryerno]

I am not going to stop anyone from scratching the itch but I am going to let them know these charts are flawed for several reasons (e.g., small sample size, report range cuts off sales data for end of month titles, no actual sales numbers) and should just be ignored.

It's not like the numbers we got for them before were any better. They were never actual sales, and were GROSSLY overinflated by the incentive covers.

[JB]

Deadpool Badder Blood #1 got a second printing. LOL! That's wild.

[Uncanny X-Man]

I also love a good sales chart! I'm happy to discuss these new ICv2 rankings, however as cranger pointed out, this is a non-representative, small and flawed sample of the data.

But as long as we're all aligned on that, I don't see any harm in updating the thread monthly with the latest rankings from ICv2.

I think the X-Men are established enough a franchise with retailers that these sales ranking can still point you towards an overall trend. When you see The X-Cellent at the bottom of this chart, you can imagine it might rank higher than #186 in a comprehensive chart but most likely it's a dud at most stores.

With the higher and mid rankings it can get more misleading however: what if the stores quizzed for this have a customer base with strong 90s nostalgia and are driving up the ranking of Deadpool: Badder Blood? What if they have limited female readership? So again, everything here is to be taken with a big pinch of salt.

[Krakoa]

It's not like the numbers we got for them before were any better. They were never actual sales, and were GROSSLY overinflated by the incentive covers.

The Diamond charts were never actual sales, but actual sales aren't the most important factor to the financial success of a comic book, store orders are, so those were much better charts for understanding what books were doing well.

[JB]

I also love a good sales chart! I'm happy to discuss these new ICv2 rankings, however as cranger pointed out, this is a non-representative, small and flawed sample of the data.

But as long as we're all aligned on that, I don't see any harm in updating the thread monthly with the latest rankings from ICv2.

I think the X-Men are established enough a franchise with retailers that these sales ranking can still point you towards an overall trend. When you see The X-Cellent at the bottom of this chart, you can imagine it might rank higher than #186 in a comprehensive chart but most likely it's a dud at most stores.

With the higher and mid rankings it can get more misleading however: what if the stores quizzed for this have a customer base with strong 90s nostalgia and are driving up the ranking of Deadpool: Badder Blood? What if they have limited female readership? So again, everything here is to be taken with a big pinch of salt.

I agree. If we're in alignment with what we're looking at it then it can still be fun to discuss. It'd be helpful if the sample was random but it's the same shops each month so to your point, the demographics of a shop's readership is an important component.

Titles today live or die based on physical preorders which, I guess, might be the only reliable metric Marvel (and DC) can count on? Issues start being created about 4 months in advance so they can't really wait for real-time sales even if they could get reliable data.

The TPB market is still rocking so we're fully in the 4/5-issue arc and mini era.

[cranger]

It's not like the numbers we got for them before were any better. They were never actual sales, and were GROSSLY overinflated by the incentive covers.

By actual sales I mean as calculated based on the previous chart's sales index. Having an idea that a title is selling 50K or 25K units (to retailers) means more than whether that title is ranked 15th or 60th. The top 10 books could all be selling within a 10-20K difference or there could be a drop of over 80K from 1 to 10.

As a tip, if anyone thinks a book seems lower than it should be, take a look if it came out in the last week (Wednesday) of the reporting period as those books will typically have lower positions on the sales chart.

[Jackraow21]

Deadpool Badder Blood #1 got a second printing. LOL! That's wild.

I bought it. It was my only Cable fix for the month. Would’ve preferred to read about him in X-men Red, but he wasn’t there. *shrugs*

[johnnysv75]

Thank you for this! Even though these lists might be flawed, they are still an indication as to what titles work and not.

[Alex_Of_X]

July X-books (just the TOP50 per ICv2, TOP200 coming mid-month)

#5 X-Men #24

#10 X-Men Hellfire Gala #1

#17 Immortal X-Men #13

#26 X-Men: Days of Future Past - Doomsday #1

#29 X-Men Before the Fall Sinister Four #1

Books launched halfway thru the month, i.e. the most likely to sell more past the survey cutoff: NEW MUTANTS LETHAL LEGION #5, WOLVERINE #35, X-MEN RED #13, DEADPOOL #9, STORM #3, THE X-CELLENT #5, X-MEN: HELLFIRE GALA 2023 #1


Takeaways:

-Guggan's X-Men went ham
-Hellfire Gala sold well for a 4 day window. Hard to compare it against anything because of the price. Ultimate invasion #1 ranked above it in its month, but also sold a week longer. Interested in HFG's long term sales.
-Fun fact: last year's HFG cost a dollar less, came out midmonth as opposed to right at the end, and still ranked only 9th as compared to this year's ranking 10th. Safe to say this year's sold better lmao.
-Limp start for Doomsday. Sorry, Googs
-X-Men: Red, where are you? (it's fine, just shipped a week later than in June, hence the sales dip. Same for Wolverine.)
-Sinister Four outpacing its contemporaries by a hair. Well done, Gillen-hive (it's me, i am the hive)
-Ultimate Invasion #2, Fallen Friend #1, Scarlet Witch #6 made the list, but they're not X-Men books in the strict definition of the word (J.D. White's not editing them). Same for Iron Man. Sound off if you want them included!

Thank you for this! Even though these lists might be flawed, they are still an indication as to what titles work and not.

mwah! thanks for reading

[JB]

July X-books (just the TOP50 per ICv2, TOP200 coming mid-month)

#5 X-Men #24

#10 X-Men Hellfire Gala #1

#17 Immortal X-Men #13

#26 X-Men: Days of Future Past - Doomsday #1

#29 X-Men Before the Fall Sinister Four #1

Books launched halfway thru the month, i.e. the most likely to sell more past the survey cutoff: NEW MUTANTS LETHAL LEGION #5, WOLVERINE #35, X-MEN RED #13, DEADPOOL #9, STORM #3, THE X-CELLENT #5, X-MEN: HELLFIRE GALA 2023 #1


Takeaways:

-Guggan's X-Men went ham
-Hellfire Gala sold well for a 4 day window. Hard to compare it against anything because of the price. Ultimate invasion #1 ranked above it in its month, but also sold a week longer. Interested in HFG's long term sales.
-Fun fact: last year's HFG cost a dollar less, came out midmonth as opposed to right at the end, and still ranked only 9th as compared to this year's ranking 10th. Safe to say this year's sold better lmao.
-Limp start for Doomsday. Sorry, Googs
-X-Men: Red, where are you? (it's fine, just shipped a week later than in June, hence the sales dip. Same for Wolverine.)
-Sinister Four outpacing its contemporaries by a hair. Well done, Gillen-hive (it's me, i am the hive)
-Ultimate Invasion #2, Fallen Friend #1, Scarlet Witch #6 made the list, but they're not X-Men books in the strict definition of the word (J.D. White's not editing them). Same for Iron Man. Sound off if you want them included!



mwah! thanks for reading

The way I keep forgetting about Doomsday. LOL

The Hellfire Gala is getting a lot of buzz and rightfully so. I think the overall tonal shift of the line is going to be good for the, well, line.

[Thievery]

First let me say that I realize that this is a very small sample size. But I do feel as if it is accurate enough to get a good gauge as to where these books stand. Betsy Braddock: Captain Marvel is a good example of this. It was meant to be an ongoing and was canceled do to poor sells, and it was shown to to be selling poorly in these charts.

It seems to me that X-Men Red. is starting to fall down the sells ranks. It lagged behind the other crossover issues of Sins of Sinister, including the comic about the Nightcrawlers.

I think the comic needs to get Cable and Magneto back in it's line-up to get back to where it was. I'm afraid that the Aroko characters just aren't enough to keep this comic floating. Feel the same way about Nova. I think the comic would be better served holding on to some of the mutant characters instead of using Nova.

Just my opinions.

Edit: I accidentally referred to X-Men Red as X-Men. I meant for my comments to be about X-Men Red.

[cranger]

One thing that stands out to me is this strange relationship:

Amazing Spider-Man #29 is basically the top selling Marvel book and #30 is 13th, a normal spread because of the week of the month difference and since ASM keeps topping the chart #30 will sell as well as #29 eventually. That is what we expect with this 'data'.

What is odd is Hellfire Gala comes out the same week as ASM #30 and outsells it. Would we expect HFG to be outselling ASM #29? It is a controversial issue so if retailers ordered big on it then maybe. However Venom #23 also came out on the last week and outsold both HFG and ASM #30. So is it outselling ASM #29? I doubt it. I think being a 'key' comic including a 'key' variant had people rushing to buy online so the sales were immediate as opposed to titles that sell a lot of shelf copies or let people pay in store when they pick up their pull. HFG may have benefitted from a little bit of FOMO as well to help it against the last week sales problem.