August 2011 Comic Book Sales Figures
The sale figures for August 2011 are in and as expected Justice League #1 killed it, the rest of the numbers however show us just how much the industry needed [and still needs] a kick in the pants.
Justice League #1: Before going any further – the Digital Combo Pack edition was the 160th best selling comic with 14,132, making Justice League #1’s total estimated quantity at 185,476 for the month (under the 200,000 we had heard was coming). It’s the best selling issue of 2011 so far and the last time a comic sold 185,000+ was Captain America Reborn #1 in July 2009, selling 193,142 (which actually surprised me, I thought I’d have to go further than 2009). It is worth noting though that Justice League #1 was sold same day digitally, and since we don’t have access to digital sales numbers we can’t get an accurate estimate of total issues bought.
Arguably even more interesting is the comparison to Flashpoint #5; Flashpoint #5’s numbers make up 51% of Justice League #1…so…we could argue that 49% of people who bought Justice League #1 didn’t buy Flashpoint #5, which is pretty cool (depending on how you look at it). Course, this assumed 49% of people could come from anywhere (Marvel or other publisher loyalists giving DC a fair shake, DC fans not reading Flashpoint, old DC fans returning, and of course new readers) regardless, the potential is exciting.
As for everything else, some notes…
- Fear Itself was not only topped by Flashpoint this month but is down almost 30% from issue #1 and is dangerously close to falling outside the 90,000 range. However Marvel want to spin it (hard economic times, start of school, DC hogging all the attention, etc) one has to assume Fear Itself is performing under expectations.
- DC Comics is still “holding the line at $2.99″ [for now] but comic fans aren’t making too much of a statement – 13 of the top 15 best selling comics were $3.99.
- Although Captain America #2 stayed in the top 15 best selling comics it decreased from issue #1 by 44%; almost half it’s readers gone, not good.
- Daredevil fell hard too, dropping by 37% from issue #1. Which is a shame because for my two cents it’s the best book Marvel is putting out right now.
- Punisher #1 may have launched a little weak but only decreased by 5% from issue #1 to #2.
- Kudos to IDW for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beating out books like Astonishing X-Men, Walking Dead, and Infinite #1.
More in the link below showing the estimated sales for the top 300 comics.
2 Comments
I think the numbers for Captain America #2 don’t necessarily mean it lost half it’s readers, just that retailers only ordered half as much because #1 didn’t sell as well in-store as expected. Something tells me there’s a lot of Cap #1′s still sitting on shelves.
Considering it’s in its forties and despite critical medicrity, Deadpool isn’t doing too bad. I think if they changed writers, the book would be in the top fifty easy.
Though to be fair, Daniel Ways done a lot of good stuff lately.