Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, Dark Knight III, dc, dc comics, entertainment, harley quinn, image, marketshare, marvel, Secret Wars, star wars, walking dead

Secret Wars Beats Dark Knight III #2 In December – But DC Dramatically Recovers Marketshare From Marvel

Of late, DC Comics marketshare has been dropping away, down past the 30% mark and getting perilously close to the 20% mark. In December, that turned around somewhat. Marvel is still be far the strongest publisher in the direct market, but DC Comics traditionally does a lot better in the Christmas market, able to monetise its back catalogue, trades, hardcovers and collections far better than Marvel is able to.

Secret Wars #8 topped the list, over Dark Knight III #2, both beating out Star Wars – though the franchise places four titles in the top ten thanks to the Annual issues. The launch of Batman/TMNT did rather well, Marvel has a strong launch for Guardians Of The Infinity as DC did with Harley's Little Black Book – which beat both the Star Wars annuals.

In October, Marvel Comics increased their share of revenue in the comic book direct market from 32.67% to 43.65% and their sale of number of comics sold increase from 38.12% to 48.26%.While DC Comics saw their marketshare fall from 26.01% to 21.85% and 26.32% down to 22.92%.

In November, Marvel's dollar share was down by a fraction to 43.2% and sales share down a similar fraction to 47.65%. DC's marketshare rose to 26.35% dollar share and a 26.09% sales share.

And now in December, DC continues that upward trend and Marvel slips considerably. Marvel has 37.09% dollar share and a 41.87% sales share, a drop of six points for each.

While DC Comics, who put on around five points last month, puts on over three points again, with a 29.32% dollar share and a 29.93% sales share.

And those missing three points? Some went to Image Comics with a 10.29% dollar share and a 10.65% unit share. And IDW got a point or so, with a 5.31% dollar share and a 4.10% unit share.

Image's top title was The Walking Dead #149 at #26, Dark Horse Comics had Fight Club 2 #8 at top #81, IDW had Back to the Future #3 at #106 and Oni Press had Invader Zim #5 at #86.

Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin's The Private Eye Deluxe Edition from Image was the best-selling graphic novel of December but Harley Quinn's trades did bloody well too and the Black Mask collection of We Can Never Go Home at number 6 for the month,

And IDW's Locke & Key: Shades of Terror Coloring Book,was the best selling non-comics book of the month. Expect this to be the story of 2016….

But as for the whole of 2015? Sales are up on 2014… 7.17% in sales overall, and 9% in comics alone, when it was just a 4% increase from 2014 over 2013.

Which means even though DC's marketshare has dropped, they are still bringing in more money in 2015 than they did in 2014….

UPDATE: Ulp, no it's not. My head hangs in shame. It's just not quite as bad of a drop….

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

TOP 10 BOOKS

TOP 10 TOYS

TOP 10 GAMES

Dollar Market Share – December 2015

Unit Market Share – December 2015

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