Comic Book Sales by Year
Yearly comic book sales can be calculated in a number of ways. The data currently on Comichron comes in three varieties:
INDUSTRY-WIDE REPORTS
The most all-inclusive information we have comes in our Industry-Wide Reports, which beginning with 2013 Comichron has collaborated on with ICV2.com in order to include not just the comics shop market, but also the book channel and digital sales. You can find these reports here:
POSTAL STATEMENTS
Year-by-year rankings of the sales figures found in comics publishers' Statements of Ownership, beginning in 1960. Some of that material can be found in our Postal Data Repository, also reachable by the annual links here:
Comichron has on hand more than 99% of the existing postal data for comics. More will be posted in the future.
AGGREGATED MONTHLY DISTRIBUTOR SALES DATA
Aggregated monthly data, combining the preorders and final orders from Diamond Comic Distributors and other distributors to the North American comics shop market for each month from 1996 to present.
The below charts collect the comics shop market 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 most reliable figures are the smaller groupings. 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.
Diamond ceased monthly and annual reporting in 2022, and with rival distributors Lunar and Penguin Random House declining to release sales data, annual sales reporting was no longer possible. The annual figure for 2022 comes from ICV2's analysis.
| Estimated OVERALL North American Market size, including both print and digital estimates by Comichron and ICV2.com | DIGITAL sales for Comics (not counting subscription services) in North America, as calculated by ICV2.com (est.): | |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | $715 million | $25 million |
| 2012 | $805 million |
$70 million |
| 2013 | $870 million |
$90 million |
| 2014 | $935 million |
$100 million |
| 2015 | $1.03 billion |
$90 million |
| 2016 | $1.085 billion | $90 million |
| 2017 | $1.015 billion | $90 million |
| 2018 | $1.095 billion | $100 million |
| 2019 | $1.21 billion | $90 million |
| 2020 | $1.28 billion | $160 million |
| 2021 | $2.075 billion | $170 million |
| 2022 | $2.16 billion (per ICV2) |
| Estimated OVERALL North American Market size, including estimates for newsstand comics and book channel TPB sales (*joint calculation by Comichron and ICV2) | OVERALL North American Dollar Sales for Comics, Trade Paperbacks, and Magazines sold by Diamond Comic Distributors to comic book stores (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 | $650-700 million | $428 million |
| 2010 | $660-690 million | $419 million |
| 2011 | $690 million* | $414 million |
| 2012 | $735 million* |
$474.61 million |
| 2013 | $780 million* |
$517.66 million |
| 2014 | $835 million* |
$540.38 million |
| 2015 | $940 million* |
$579.12 million |
| 2016 | $995 million* | $580.91 million |
| 2017 | $925 million* | $522.25 million |
| 2018 | $995 million* | $516.59 million |
| 2019 | $1.12 billion* |
$528.11 million |
| 2020 | $1.12 billion* |
$440 million (includes other distributors) |
| 2021 | $1.905 billion* | $705 million (includes other distributors) |
| Dollar Sales for All Diamond's Comics (est., based on Diamond's reports): | Dollar Sales for Diamond's Top 300 Comic Books from each month (est.) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | $244.39 million | |
| 1998 | $210.65 million | |
| 1999 | $202.54 million | |
| 2000 | $190.75 million | |
| 2001 | $186.98 million | |
| 2002 | $196.65 million | |
| 2003 | $207.19 million | |
| 2004 | $213.24 million | |
| 2005 | $221.73 million | |
| 2006 | $252.18 million | |
| 2007 | $270.00 million | |
| 2008 | $263.00 million | |
| 2009 | $279 million |
$257.88 million |
| 2010 | $266 million |
$245.72 million |
| 2011 | $269 million |
$248.44 million |
| 2012 | $310 million | $285.02 million |
| 2013 | $341 million |
$308.71 million |
| 2014 | $355 million | $313.08 million |
| 2015 | $388 million | $353.18 million |
| 2016 | $382 million |
$344.28 million |
| 2017 | $346 million |
$308.41 million |
| 2018 | $348 million |
$319.13 million |
| 2019 | $361 million | $334.09 million |
| 2020 | $285 million (includes other distributors) | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months |
| 2021 | $435 million (includes other distributors) | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months |
| Unit Sales for All Diamond's Comics (est., based on Diamond's reports): | Unit Sales for Diamond's Top 300 Comic Books from each month (est.): | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 100.32 million copies |
|
| 1998 | 84.45 million copies |
|
| 1999 | 78.08 million copies | |
| 2000 | 69.26 million copies | |
| 2001 | 66.92 million copies | |
| 2002 | 70.27 million copies | |
| 2003 | 73.02 million copies | |
| 2004 | 74.14 million copies | |
| 2005 | 76.13 million copies | |
| 2006 | 81.85 million copies | |
| 2007 | 85.27 million copies | |
| 2008 | 81.34 million copies |
|
| 2009 | 78.4 million copies | 74.88 million copies |
| 2010 | 73.8 million copies | 69.20 million copies |
| 2011 | 77.2 million copies | 72.13 million copies |
| 2012 | 86 million copies | 80.55 million copies |
| 2013 | 91.8 million copies | 84.51 million copies |
| 2014 | 92 million copies | 82.65 million copies |
| 2015 | 98 million copies | 89.17 million copies |
| 2016 | 99 million copies | 89.35 million copies |
| 2017 | 89.4 million copies | 79.74 million copies |
| 2018 | 84.4 million copies | 77.48 million copies |
| 2019 | 83.2 million copies |
76.92 million copies |
| 2020 | 63.2 million copies |
Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months |
| 2021 | 94 million copies | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months |
| 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 | $19.20 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 |
| 2010 | $76.31 million | $321.98 million |
| 2011 | $70.06 million | $318.5 million |
| 2012 | $84.57 million | $369.59 million |
| 2013 | $93.91 million | $402.31 million |
| 2014 | $88.82 million | $401.88 million |
| 2015 | $89.43 million | $442.6 million |
| 2016 | $93.72 million | $437.38 million |
| 2017 | $88.12 million | $396.56 million |
| 2018 | $73.56 million | $392.89 million |
| 2019 | $70.54 million | $404.65 million |
| 2020 | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months |
| 2021 | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months |
| 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 |
| 2010 | $3.58 | $3.55 |
| 2011 | $3.49 | $3.44 |
| 2012 | $3.54 | $3.57 |
| 2013 | $3.61 | $3.65 |
| 2014 | $3.77 | $3.79 |
| 2015 | $3.83 | $3.96 |
| 2016 | $3.89 | $3.85 |
| 2017 | $3.91 | $3.86 |
| 2018 | $4.00 | $4.12 |
| 2019 | $4.13 | $4.33 |
| 2020 | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months | $4.37 (based on all comics) |
| 2021 | Diamond did not publish Top 300s for all months | $4.46 (based on all comics) |
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 2,000 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.
Beginning with 2011, the "overall" computations are the result of a collaboration with ICv2.com.
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!
