DC Sales & Estimates

[GlennSimpson]

Does anyone have the digital numbers?

Bloggers and other interested people have made estimates and educated guesses but ComiXology and the companies do not release sales data for digital products.

I'd go so far as to suggest that the fact that we have sales numbers for print at all is a fairly rare situation compared to other companies and products, although I could be wrong.

[BohemiaDrinker]

I'd go so far as to suggest that the fact that we have sales numbers for print at all is a fairly rare situation compared to other companies and products, although I could be wrong.

In my own experience, you're right. In Brazil, we don't get numbers at all unless buying ad space (and even then, only sometimes). We also don't have a direct market, though. (And different stronger sellers; round here super-heroes suffer while our local kids line (Monica's Gang) does strong.)

But since I can not find reliable numbers for anything pre-Diamond, I'd wager that the estimates we get are more of "breach" in the system than anything else.

Digital numbers are complicated, though, cause they're worldwide. (There are a bunch of reasons for people opting for them instead of localized versions. Blame Panini for most countries, I believe). Depending on how much digital grows, it might make cost DC and Marvel money if they don't adjust their publications licensing properly.

[RLAAMJR.]

April update:

DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Apr) 2015 - 8,547,782 estimated units.
DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Apr) 2014 - 7,447,209 estimated units.

And here are the figures for 1997-2014:
2014 - 26,836,455 estimated units
2013 - 28,184,085 estimated units
2012 - 29,602,125 estimated units
2011 - 26,522,201 estimated units
2010 - 23,528,000 estimated units
2009 - 24,126,336 estimated units
2008 - 25,760,378 estimated units
2007 - 29,597,217 estimated units
2006 - 30,243,575 estimated units
2005 - 26,995,698 estimated units
2004 - 23,895,322 estimated units
2003 - 22,344,120 estimated units
2002 - 20,687,488 estimated units - Dan Didio joins DC as VP of Editorial.
2001 - 21,220,332 estimated units
2000 - 23,243,656 estimated units
1999 - 25,141,760 estimated units
1998 - 22,869,060 estimated units
1997 - 26,323,968 estimated units


And, out of interest, here's the Marvel numbers:

Marvel Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Apr) 2015 - 11,868,239 estimated units.
Marvel Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Apr) 2014 - 9,765,119 estimated units.

And here are the figures for 1997-2014:
2014 - 30,398,670 estimated units
2013 - 31,243,347 estimated units
2012 - 30,278,745 estimated units.
2011 - 29,522,809 estimated units
2010 - 29,998,200 estimated units
2009 - 34,167,744 estimated units
2008 - 37,269,988 estimated units
2007 - 38,132,744 estimated units
2006 - 34,647,105 estimated units
2005 - 32,461,832 estimated units
2004 - 32,021,066 estimated units
2003 - 28,974,336 estimated units
2002 - 28,473,404 estimated units
2001 - 25,349,296 estimated units
2000 - 21,948,494 estimated units - Joe Quesada becomes EIC.
1999 - 24,111,104 estimated units
1998 - 27,015,555 estimated units
1997 - 32,664,192 estimated units

I think DC will end the year 2015 selling more than 27,000,000 units.

As for Marvel Comics, i think they could end the year 2015 selling more than 33,000,000 units.

[GlennSimpson]

In my own experience, you're right. In Brazil, we don't get numbers at all unless buying ad space (and even then, only sometimes). We also don't have a direct market, though. (And different stronger sellers; round here super-heroes suffer while our local kids line (Monica's Gang) does strong.)

But since I can not find reliable numbers for anything pre-Diamond, I'd wager that the estimates we get are more of "breach" in the system than anything else.

Digital numbers are complicated, though, cause they're worldwide. (There are a bunch of reasons for people opting for them instead of localized versions. Blame Panini for most countries, I believe). Depending on how much digital grows, it might make cost DC and Marvel money if they don't adjust their publications licensing properly.

So after further reflection, I guess we know box office numbers for movies, we know sales for music (thus the whole "platinum record" achievement). I know we know "best sellers" for novels but do we know the numbers behind that or is it just a relative thing?

Companies will often release financial information to stockholders (although I don't know that numbers of units sold is as necessary in that situation as dollars in and out). But at the same time, they probably don't want their competitors getting too much information.

I'm actually not sure why they release movie box office numbers - I guess they decided that people are more likely to go see a movie if they know a bunch of other people did already.

Of course, for purposes of clarity, I'll remind that DC/Marvel do not release these numbers, Diamond Distributors does, which I understood to be similar to movie example above - they felt that retailers would benefit from knowing how well books sell relative to each other. And Diamond releases just a relative index, and somebody else converts the index to units.

[Joe Kalicki]

Just had somebody this very day tell me to "check my figures" because DC's sales were "below pre-Flashpoint and dropping." What compels people to ignore stone cold solid facts?

[RobinFan4880]

I'd go so far as to suggest that the fact that we have sales numbers for print at all is a fairly rare situation compared to other companies and products, although I could be wrong.

In fact creators have often said the estimates from Diamond can be off by a fair margin compared to actual sales data. Its good we have data but it isn't perfect. Of course the fact we have any data, even estimates, is hugely strange for any industry. They don't normally share that info with anyone. Sometimes I wonder if Comics would be better without that data. We'd see titles come and titles go but maybe it would make people more apt to give weird comics a shot since they would not, necessarily, know how well it is doing nationally.

EDIT: Movies release how much money they earned from ticket sales but since the price of a ticket is not standardized, so it is difficult to say how many people are attending the movies. Music tells us when an album goes platinum, so I suppose we have an estimate there but it is rounded to the nearest thousand/million (also, interestingly, 100 streams counts as 1 unit sold).

Just had somebody this very day tell me to "check my figures" because DC's sales were "below pre-Flashpoint and dropping." What compels people to ignore stone cold solid facts?

Their hatred of the New 52?

[The Darknight Detective]

Just had somebody this very day tell me to "check my figures" because DC's sales were "below pre-Flashpoint and dropping." What compels people to ignore stone cold solid facts?

Certain people want a reboot back to pre-DCnU, so facts be damned in that quest (which is futile, anyway, since that universe is gone for good).

[BohemiaDrinker]

Of course, for purposes of clarity, I'll remind that DC/Marvel do not release these numbers, Diamond Distributors does, which I understood to be similar to movie example above - they felt that retailers would benefit from knowing how well books sell relative to each other. And Diamond releases just a relative index, and somebody else converts the index to units.

That's why I called it a "breach". That's also why there's no reason for digital numbers to be out there from the publishers perspective; there's no retailer on the traditional sense, nor ordering proccess or anything of the sort. Even if the "most sold" we see play more of a "hey kids, look, those are popular" role than anything else.

[RLAAMJR.]

This might make Convergence fans happy: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/...ublic-victory/

[blackbolt396]

Just had somebody this very day tell me to "check my figures" because DC's sales were "below pre-Flashpoint and dropping." What compels people to ignore stone cold solid facts?

Hate, simple as that .

[Lee Stone]

Well, of course, the Jan-April number would not change if one shifted numbers from April to March, because they are both included in the total.

But in terms of changes from month to month, I guess it breaks down like this:

Jan-Feb was 3,866,771, Jan-Mar was 5,636,772: So therefore Mar alone must be 1,770,001 (not including the four books)

Jan-Apr is 8,547,782, so Apr alone must be 2,911,010 (including the four books)

Batman #40 was 131,128
Justice League #40 was 78,388
Harley Quinn #16 was 72,055
Superman #40 was 52,666

So that gives us:

With the four books in April:

March 1,770,001
April 2,911,010

With the four books in March:

March 2,104,238
April 2,576,773

Actually... this is what I wanted to do...

March:
DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Mar) 2015 - 5,635,772 estimated units. (Original)
DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Mar) 2015 - 5,970,009 estimated units. (Adjusted)
DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Mar) 2014 - 5,545,857 estimated units.
Difference: +89,915 (original), +424,152 (adjusted)

April:
DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Apr) 2015 - 8,547,782 estimated units.
DC Sales - Top 300 (Jan-Apr) 2014 - 7,447,209 estimated units.
Difference: +1,100,573

[Joe Kalicki]

Certain people want a reboot back to pre-DCnU, so facts be damned in that quest (which is futile, anyway, since that universe is gone for good).

Right, and even if they brought back every character, title and creator from pre-Flashpoint (like Birds of Prey 16 by Gail Simone or Zatanna or James Robinson on Justice League), these same people would complain about something, like it doesn't feel just right or it's too late and DC already lost them forever or whatever.

[Joe Kalicki]

This might make Convergence fans happy: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/...ublic-victory/

I love the one guy that clearly hates DC. If I shopped at his store I wouldn't buy DC comics from him either, because he probably just makes fun of them every time someone brings one up to his register.

[Blacksun]

Just had somebody this very day tell me to "check my figures" because DC's sales were "below pre-Flashpoint and dropping." What compels people to ignore stone cold solid facts?

convergence helped and dc is doing a mini relaunched, numbers were very close to it. Still to early to say it will be a growth year

[Joe Kalicki]

convergence helped and dc is doing a mini relaunched, numbers were very close to it. Still to early to say it will be a growth year

As you could see by a post every month in this thread, last year's DC sales were 3 million units greater than pre-Flashpoint numbers. And to this point so far their numbers this year are higher than last year's. There is literally no factual basis for claiming their sales have ever come close to dropping to pre-Flashpoint levels.