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Comic
Book Sales by Year
Yearly comics sales data comes in two varieties:
1) Year-by-year rankings of the sales figures found in comics publishers' Statements of Ownership, beginning in 1960. That material can be found here:
2) Aggregated monthly data, combining the preorders and final orders from Diamond Comic Distributors for each month from 1996 to present.
The below charts collect the Diamond data I've calculated across time. The widest grouping, visible below in black, has the widest margin of error; in addition to including the more solid estimates of comics-shop sales, guesses at returnable newsstand comics sales and returnable bookstore trade paperback sales are included.
The more reliable figures are the smaller groupings, appearing in red. These are calculated based on all the public reports issued by Diamond for comics shop sales in each month. The biggest such figure captures all comics, trade paperbacks, and magazines sold by Diamond in a year. As what Diamond has reported from year to year has changed, figures are not available for every category for every year.
| Estimated OVERALL North American Market size, including estimates for newsstand comics and bookstore TPB sales | OVERALL North American Dollar Sales for Diamond's Comics, Trade Paperbacks, and Magazines (est.): | |
| 1997 | $300-320 million | |
| 1998 | $280-300 million | |
| 1999 | $270-290 million | |
| 2000 | $255-275 million | |
| 2001 | $260-285 million | |
| 2002 | $300-330 million | n/a |
| 2003 | $350-400 million | $310.6 million |
| 2004 | $420-480 million | $328.25 million |
| 2005 | $475-550 million | $352.33 million |
| 2006 | $575-640 million | $395.55
million |
| 2007 | $660-700 million | $430.00
million |
| 2008 | $680-710 million | $436.6
million |
| 2009 | $428
million |
|
| Unit Sales for Diamond's Top 300 Comic Books from each month (est.): |
Dollar Sales for Diamond's Top 300 Comic Books from each month (est.): | |
| 1997 | 100.32 million copies | $244.39 million |
| 1998 | 84.45 million copies | $210.65 million |
| 1999 | 78.08 million copies | $202.54 million |
| 2000 | 69.26 million copies | $190.75 million |
| 2001 | 66.92 million copies | $186.98 million |
| 2002 | 70.27 million copies | $196.65 million |
| 2003 | 73.02 million copies | $207.19 million |
| 2004 | 74.14 million copies | $213.24 million |
| 2005 | 76.13 million copies | $221.73 million |
| 2006 | 81.85 million copies | $252.18 million |
| 2007 | 85.27 million copies | $270.00 million |
| 2008 | 81.34 million copies | $263.00 million |
| 2009 | 74.88 million copies | $257.88 million |
| Dollar Sales for Diamond's Top Trade Paperbacks from each month (est.): | Combined Dollar Sales for Diamond's Top 300 Comics and Top TPBs from each month(est.): | |
| 1997 | n/a | n/a |
| 1998 | $15.84 million | $226.49 million |
| 1999 | $17.31 million | $219.85 million |
| 2000 | $19.2 million | $209.95 million |
| 2001 | $20.51 million | $207.49 million |
| 2002 | $32.64 million | $229.29 million |
| 2003 | $30.73 million | $237.92 million |
| 2004 | $40.99 million | $254.36 million |
| 2005 | $45.84 million | $267.57 million |
| 2006 | $48.45 million | $300.63 million |
| 2007 | $57.15 million | $327.1 million |
| 2008 | $59.57 million | $327.65 million |
| 2009 | $77.65 million | $335.47 million |
| Average price of comic books in Diamond's Top 300 from each month: | Average price of comic books in Diamond's Top 300 from each month, weighted by orders: | |
| 1997 | $2.62 | $2.44 |
| 1998 | $2.71 | $2.49 |
| 1999 | $2.88 | $2.59 |
| 2000 | $2.95 | $2.75 |
| 2001 | $3.10 | $2.79 |
| 2002 | $3.07 | $2.67 |
| 2003 | $3.06 | $2.84 |
| 2004 | $3.14 | $2.88 |
| 2005 | $3.15 | $2.91 |
| 2006 | $3.24 | $3.08 |
| 2007 | $3.27 | $3.17 |
| 2008 | $3.34 | $3.23 |
| 2009 | $3.47 | $3.44 |
Note that in the charts above, Diamond from time to time increased the number of trade paperbacks it was reporting on. In 2008, the first 10 months it reported its Top 100, while in the last two months it reported its Top 300. In 2009, the total sum was higher only because the 2009 figure includes Top 300s from all 12 months (and thus figures on 2000 more trade paperback releases). The links below go to individual yearly pages where that has been allowed for, and apples-to-apples comparisons can be seen.
The individual pages for each of these years can be found by clicking the links below. Remember that these pages only show what the comics shops of North America ordered, whereas the Statements of Ownership report sales through all channels. More years coming soon!
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 |
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
