DC Sales & Estimates

[Atlanta96]

Things like Gotham Academy and Super Sons might be the way to attract younger readers.

Really young readers yes, teens are important IMO because they have more money than very young kids. Although teens are probably the most nitpicky about things like art quality so it's a bit more of a risk I guess. Elementary schoolers will eat up any crap you give them

[JasonTodd428]

Really young readers yes, teens are important IMO because they have more money than very young kids. Although teens are probably the most nitpicky about things like art quality so it's a bit more of a risk I guess. Elementary schoolers will eat up any crap you give them

Well you got to start them off somewhere. If DC (or Marvel for that matter) can attract the younger kids through selling trades at Scholastic book fairs those kids might continue with comics into their teen years and beyond. New blood needs to come from somewhere. The comic fanbase isn't getting any younger these days. I also think that digital services like Marvel Unlimited and Hoopla might be another way to attract readers. Hoopla in particular might offer teens a platform where they can read comics in trade without spending a dime.

[rui no onna]

And some books sell much better digitally than most titles that outsell them in print, as the digital audience is slightly skewed to different tastes.
It may not be enough to make much difference when added all up, but if you took that 10% and looked at it separately you'd have a slightly different view of the market.

True.

Marvel's Top Selling in comiXology:
1. Unworthy Thor #4
2. IvX #4
3. Ms. Marvel #15
4. Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #4
5. Jessica Jones #5
6. All-New Wolverine #17
7. Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #4
8. Black Widow #11
9. Guardians of the Galaxy #17
10. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #17

[Lee Stone]

True.

Marvel's Top Selling in comiXology:
1. Unworthy Thor #4
2. IvX #4
3. Ms. Marvel #15
4. Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #4
5. Jessica Jones #5
6. All-New Wolverine #17
7. Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #4
8. Black Widow #11
9. Guardians of the Galaxy #17
10. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #17

The only problem with Comixology's charts is that it's dynamic, which means you can only compare books that are released in the same week.
But if you watch the chart for a whole month or two (and remove sale items such as back issues) you can see certain patterns which show the differences between the digital and print audiences.

And even on a week-by-week basis, you can still see where a book in digital is outselling a book that sells better than it in print.
For instance, Titans is outselling All-Star Batman, Action Comics, Wonder Woman, Flash, Suicide Squad... basically everything that came out on its week except for JLA and Detective Comics.
But if you look at the last print chart, from December, the only one of those titles it sold better than was Action Comics. All the rest are outselling it in print.
And it's not only the #3 title for DC in digital for the week... but also the #3 title overall in digital for the week, outselling everything by Marvel, even.

[rui no onna]

The only problem with Comixology's charts is that it's dynamic, which means you can only compare books that are released in the same week.

And even on a week-by-week basis, you can still see where a book in digital is outselling a book that sells better than it in print.
For instance, Titans is outselling All-Star Batman, Action Comics, Wonder Woman, Flash, Suicide Squad... basically everything that came out on its week except for JLA and Detective Comics.

I don't know about being limited by release week. The 25-cent Walking Dead #163 released February 1 and Love Is Love anthology released December 28 still placed in the charts. I think the Best Seller List only showing that week's releases probably has more to do with tapering sales of the previous week's releases coupled with stronger sales of new releases.

Would be interesting if they published different charts showing best sellers by Year/Month/Week.

Alas, they're keeping those very close to the chest as proprietary data.

[Blackest Knight]

Marvel's 10% free overship of books (not requested by retailers) allowed them to take #1 again in market share...

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/02...e-whole-story/

Here are the Top 10 books...
Diamond Top 10 Comics.jpg

Lots of Batman and Justice League does give DC 6 of the Top Ten books.

[GlennSimpson]

Marvel's 10% free overship of books (not requested by retailers) allowed them to take #1 again in market share...

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/02...e-whole-story/

Here are the Top 10 books...
Diamond Top 10 Comics.jpg

Lots of Batman and Justice League does give DC 6 of the Top Ten books.

I would have assumed it was the 50+ variant covers that did the job for U.S.Avengers, not the overship.

[rui no onna]

Marvel's 10% free overship of books (not requested by retailers) allowed them to take #1 again in market share...

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/02...e-whole-story/

You know, if they're gonna do free overships for books anyway (particularly large overships for issues #1-3), why not just offer a low tester price $1.99-2.99? Might even help with sell through.

Waiting for Comichron monthly sales charts which shows dollar rankings to estimate how much actual overships are.

[GlennSimpson]

You know, if they're gonna do free overships for books anyway (particularly large overships for issues #1-3), why not just offer a low tester price $1.99-2.99? Might even help with sell through.

Well, FWIW, that would require them to print the different versions with the different pricing, which is more expensive to do.

[GreenLanternRanger]

Yeah, Marvel overshipping books may make their sales look good on paper but it is harmful to the industry in the long run and does nothing but give more books to dollar bins & use as lining for bird cages.

Glad to see A decent amount of DC books still going strong though.

[GreenLanternRanger]

Really young readers yes, teens are important IMO because they have more money than very young kids. Although teens are probably the most nitpicky about things like art quality so it's a bit more of a risk I guess. Elementary schoolers will eat up any crap you give them

Gotham Academy & Super Sons are both great books for readers young & old alike. Neither are "crap"!

[Atlanta96]

Gotham Academy & Super Sons are both great books for readers young & old alike. Neither are "crap"!

I never said they were.

[Atlanta96]

Marvel's 10% free overship of books (not requested by retailers) allowed them to take #1 again in market share...

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/02...e-whole-story/

Here are the Top 10 books...
Diamond Top 10 Comics.jpg

Lots of Batman and Justice League does give DC 6 of the Top Ten books.

USAvengers is one of the funniest things Marvel has ever done. An ongoing series who's primary purpose is to sell variant covers. I remember walking into my store one week and half the shelf was taken up by those variants, it's a new low for cover gimmicks. Even worse than X-Men #1 1993.

[rui no onna]

Well, FWIW, that would require them to print the different versions with the different pricing, which is more expensive to do.

Huh, why would they? I meant across the board pricing for issues #1-3 so all the covers including variants would have the same price.

change from:
Hawkeye #1 $3.99, est. overship 100%

to:
Hawkeye #1 $1.99, no overship

Or just offer returnability same as DC. That way, Marvel's shouldering some of the risk if titles don't sell and not retailers.

[Lee Stone]

I don't know about being limited by release week. The 25-cent Walking Dead #163 released February 1 and Love Is Love anthology released December 28 still placed in the charts. I think the Best Seller List only showing that week's releases probably has more to do with tapering sales of the previous week's releases coupled with stronger sales of new releases.

Would be interesting if they published different charts showing best sellers by Year/Month/Week.

Alas, they're keeping those very close to the chest as proprietary data.

What I mean by dynamic is that it's updated on a daily basis, and most sales of new comics peak by the weekend after they come out.
And unlike music, comic sales drop sharply the week after they're released, and even more the next week.
So you would need to take a 'snapshot' of the two peaking days (Sunday and Monday, which reflect Saturday and Sunday) each week and compare side-by-side with each other for the month.

And keep in mind their charts also only show relative sales, meaning in relation to each other in the same chart.
How I compensate for this is I look at the number of reviews the book has had (at the time of the snapshot) to give an idea of where each book of one week relates to each book of any other given week. While not everyone reviews a comic, every review is still a purchase (and the most concrete number we can get from Comixology).
But it's important to compare number of reviews and chart rankings for each comic at the same point in their 'lifespan'.
Meaning, if you're going to compare chart ranking and number of reviews after five days with one comic , you need to stay consistently at five days for every comic.

Doing this, it is possible to make a 'sales chart' that, while not completely accurate, would be the closest we could come to seeing monthly digital sales.

I hope this wasn't too confusing.
I've been suffering an eye allergy.