Comic Book Sales Figures for 1969

Average Total Paid Circulation as Reported in Publishers' Statements of Ownership and Filed with the United States Postal Service

This list includes only those titles which offered subscriptions via the USPS Second or Periodical Class, and which published their sales reports in their titles.

The same way the Batman TV show helped Batman sales, another extraneous event helped propel a title to the top of the charts. The Archie Show debuted on CBS's Saturday morning line-up in September of the previous year, and Don Kirshner, who had manufactured a multimedia phenomenon with The Monkees, did so again by organizing a bubbblegum pop band, The Archies. It was pure sugar (sorry — it couldn't be helped) for the comics sales, and Archie went to first place.

DC and Marvel each increased their cover prices by 25% to 15¢ — with starkly different results. Painful declines hit Superman and Batman, and even mid-range titles like Green Lantern were off 20%. Marvel, meanwhile, switched its prices later in the year and saw less dramatic drops. Amazing Spider-Man sales were nearly flat, but in this market that still allowed it to reach the Top 10 for the first time. Spidey's own cartoon show was on its second (and last) season on ABC.

So while the 1960s close with the super-heroes of the Silver Age in ascendance, it was really only ascendance relative to the other genres in the field. Marvel, with a slate increasingly devoted to super-heroes, was better positioned than other publishers to enter the 1970s — but all publishers would find it one of the tougher decades in the history of comics.

Magazines with comics content (like Mad) are sorted separately at the bottom.

—John Jackson Miller

Title links below lead to current listings for the issues on eBay. As an eBay Partner, this site may be compensated if you make a purchase.

	Title	Publisher	Average Copies Sold Per Issue
1	Archie	Archie	515,356
2	Superman	DC	511,984
3	Superboy	DC	465,462
4	Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane	DC	397,346
5	Betty and Veronica	Archie	384,789
6	Action Comics	DC	377,535
7	Amazing Spider-Man	Marvel	372,352
8	World's Finest Comics	DC	366,618
9	Batman	DC	355,782
10	Adventure Comics	DC	354,123
11	Archie and Me	Archie	345,869
12	Fantastic Four	Marvel	340,363
13	Life with Archie	Archie	326,488
14	Reggie and Me	Archie	276,275
15	Walt Disney's Comics & Stories	Gold Key	272,672
16	Archie Giant Series	Archie	271,699
17	Thor	Marvel	266,368
18	Incredible Hulk	Marvel	262,472
19	Flintstones	Gold Key	258,821
20	Archie's Pals 'n' Gals	Archie	253,206
21	Daredevil	Marvel	245,422
22	Captain America	Marvel	243,798
23	Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos	Marvel	242,897
24	Brave & Bold	DC	242,501
25	Avengers	Marvel	239,986
26	Uncanny X-Men	Marvel	235,811
27	Justice League of America	DC	233,000
28	Treasure Chest	Catholic Guild	231,531
29	Reggie's Wise Guy Jokes	Archie	222,732
30	Flash	DC	221,470
31	Detective Comics	DC	221,267
32	Little Dot	Harvey	213,070
33	Little Lotta	Harvey	211,039
34	Madhouse	Archie	209,897
35	Turok, Son of Stone	Gold Key	209,813
36	Rawhide Kid	Marvel	204,896
37	Phantom	Charlton	199,045
38	Beetle Bailey	Charlton	198,020
39	G.I. Combat	DC	186,264
40	Unusual Tales	Charlton	178,545
41	Adventures of Jerry Lewis	DC	174,125
42	House of Mystery	DC	173,206
43	Sugar & Spike	DC	171,227
44	Wonder Woman	DC	171,197
45	Green Lantern	DC	160,423
46	Aquaman	DC	156,307
47	Tales of the Unexpected	DC	155,110
48	Star-Spangled Comics	DC	149,170
49	Fightin' Army	Charlton	141,335
50	Strange Adventures	DC	141,179
51	Challengers of the Unknown	DC	140,238
52	Texas Rangers in Action	Charlton	136,378
53	Showcase	DC	130,219
999	Mad	EC	1,884,502

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About a hundred more Statements exist for this year and have been collected by Comichron. They'll appear here soon!

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