Comic Book Sales for 2012

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2012 Comic Book Sales Figures
Comics Sold to North American Comics Shops as Reported by Diamond Comic Distributors

OVERALL North American Dollar Sales for Diamond's Comics, Trade Paperbacks, and Magazines for 2012, through APRIL
around $138 million
(up 13.84% year-over-year)

My analyses of final orders from Diamond Comic Distributors for individual months can be found here:

January 2012	February 2012	March 2012	April 2012
May 2012	June 2012	July 2012	August 2012
September 2012	October 2012	November 2012	December 2012

Overview To the past

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2012
The year in comics
shop orders

Vital statistics
(Comics sales to shops by Diamond through APRIL,
all figures estimated)

The Top 300 Comics each month sold
23.99 million copies
(+15% vs. previous year)
(-13% vs. 5 years earlier)
(+10% vs. 10 years earlier)
(-31% vs. 15 years earlier)

All Comics sold to comics shops (in units)
up 15.12%

The Top 300 Comics each month had sales worth
$82.94 million
(+14% vs. previous year)
(-4% vs. 5 years earlier)
(+34% vs. 10 years earlier)
(+2% vs. 15 years earlier)

All Comics sold to comics shops (in dollars)
up 15.94%

The Top 300 Trade Paperbacks and Graphic Novels each month had sales worth
$24.89 million
(+23% vs. previous year)

All Trade Paperbacks and Graphic Novels sold to comics shops
up 9.47%

Combined, the Top 300 Comics and Top 300 Trade Paperback categories had sales worth
$107.83 million
(+16% vs. previous year)

All Comic Books, Trade Paperbacks and Graphic Novels sold to comics shops
up 13.84%

OVERALL
including all comics, trades, graphic novels, and magazines, Diamond had sales of
around $137.81 million
(up 14% vs. previous year)

Aggregate totals across time

    While the annual comparative numbers for January were skewed because January 2011 had far fewer items on the market due to Diamond's switch to Tuesday shipping, comics sales were nonetheless the best the industry had seen in three Januaries. February was a rare five-week month but nonetheless outpaced expected gains, showing the beginnings of a "virtuous cycle" for the Direct Market. March sales were off slightly against a five-week month in 2011 but allowed the first quarter to finish with its best overall dollar sales (not adjusted for inflation) for a "Dead Quarter" in the 21st Century.

    April saw the launch of Avengers vs. X-Men in advance of the release of the blockbuster Avengers movie.

— John Jackson Miller

MARKET SHARES
Find market shares across time
here.

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THE FINE PRINT

The sales estimates above are for comics shipped byDiamond Comic Distributors, the largest comic-book distributor in North America.

Diamond publishes "indexed" sales figures, in which it keys orders for all comics it lists sales for to a single comic book (usually Batman), with one “order index point” being equal to 1% of that title’s orders. We use the actual Diamond final orders from titles accounting for more than 25% of Diamond’s Top 300 to approximate what an order index point equals each month. The result is applied to the Diamond charts to produce the agggregate estimates seen above.

RESOURCES
BOOKS ON COMICS
- All in Color for a Dime
- Standard Catalog of Comics

MARKET SHARES

THE FINE PRINT

RESOURCES

BOOKS ON COMICS