Diamond has released its prelimiary official year end stats for 2015, and like the unofficial one, Star Wars #1 was the top seller of the year among periodicals, while Saga Vol. 4 led among graphic novels and took the top three spots on the chart. Star Wars #1 was the best-selling single issue in over two decades.
Comics periodical sales were up 8.99% for the year, while graphic novel sales rose by 3.14%. Overall, sales increased by 7.17%, and Diamond sold over 98 million comic books, up 6 million from 2014. They shipped just over 8 million graphic novels.
Now, you may be wondering how this compares to last year. It’s actually up from 2014, when annual sales increased only 4.39%, with comics up 4.03% and GNs up 5.18%. So despite the feelings of unease and doom we’ve been noting, the numbers don’t support a sense of disaster. Doesn’t mean the numbers aren’t showing it, however.
Marvel was the #1 publisher again, beating DC by 13 points in dollars and 14 in units. Image remained at #3. Again, copmparing this to 2014, Marvel’s margin was only 6 points in dollars and a scant 4 in units. Images percentages are almost exactly the same.
Here’s the rest of the charts:
2015 TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS
| PUBLISHER | DOLLAR
SHARE |
UNIT
SHARE |
| MARVEL COMICS | 38.74% | 41.82% |
| DC ENTERTAINMENT | 25.75% | 27.35% |
| IMAGE COMICS | 9.93% | 10.70% |
| IDW PUBLISHING | 5.59% | 4.87% |
| DARK HORSE COMICS | 3.79% | 3.10% |
| BOOM! STUDIOS | 2.28% | 2.46% |
| DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT | 1.99% | 1.79% |
| TITAN COMICS | 1.03% | 0.95% |
| EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS | 0.94% | 0.20% |
| VIZ MEDIA | 0.93% | 0.35% |
| OTHER NON-TOP 10 | 9.00% | 6.41% |
2015 TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS
| RANK | DESCRIPTION | PRICE | ITEM CODE | VENDOR |
| 1 | STAR WARS #1 | $4.99 | AUG158711-M | MARVEL COMICS |
| 2 | SECRET WARS #1 | $4.99 | JUL158548-M | MARVEL COMICS |
| 3 | BRAVEST WARRIORS: TALES FROM HOLO JOHN #1 | $4.99 | MAR151109-M | BOOM! STUDIOS |
| 4 | ORPHAN BLACK #1 | $3.99 | DEC140468-M | IDW PUBLISHING |
| 5 | DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE #1 | $5.99 | SEP150179-M | DC COMICS |
| 6 | STAR WARS VADER DOWN #1 | $4.99 | SEP150827-M | MARVEL COMICS |
| 7 | DARTH VADER #1 | $4.99 | AUG158716-M | MARVEL COMICS |
| 8 | SPIDER-GWEN #1 | $3.99 | APR158276-M | MARVEL COMICS |
| 9 | INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1 | $3.99 | JUL150696-M | MARVEL COMICS |
| 10 | PRINCESS LEIA #1 | $3.99 | JAN150733-M | MARVEL COMICS |
2015 TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS
| RANK | DESCRIPTION | PRICE | ITEM CODE | VENDOR |
| 1 | SAGA VOLUME 4 TP (MR) | $14.99 | OCT140644 | IMAGE COMICS |
| 2 | SAGA VOLUME 1 TP (MR) | $9.99 | AUG120491 | IMAGE COMICS |
| 3 | SAGA VOLUME 5 TP (MR) | $14.99 | JUL150565 | IMAGE COMICS |
| 4 | CIVIL WAR TP | $24.99 | JAN072436 | MARVEL COMICS |
| 5 | THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 23: WHISPERS INTO SCREAMS TP | $14.99 | FEB150545 | IMAGE COMICS |
| 6 | BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL EDITION HC | $17.99 | NOV070226 | DC COMICS |
| 7 | SAGA VOLUME 2 TP (MR) | $14.99 | APR130443 | IMAGE COMICS |
| 8 | THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1: DAYS GONE BYE TP | $14.99 | NOV128157-M | IMAGE COMICS |
| 9 | SAGA VOLUME 3 TP (MR) | $14.99 | JAN140556 | IMAGE COMICS |
| 10 | STAR WARS VOLUME 1: SKYWALKER STRIKES TP | $19.99 | MAY150811 | MARVEL COMICS |
2015 NUMBER OF TITLES SHIPPED
| PUBLISHER | COMICS | GRAPHIC NOVELS | MAGAZINES | TOTAL |
| MARVEL COMICS | 917 | 390 | 2 | 1309 |
| DC ENTERTAINMENT | 963 | 331 | 6 | 1300 |
| IMAGE COMICS | 773 | 187 | 0 | 960 |
| IDW PUBLISHING | 527 | 265 | 0 | 792 |
| DARK HORSE COMICS | 378 | 234 | 0 | 612 |
| BOOM ENTERTAINMENT | 385 | 94 | 0 | 479 |
| DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT | 301 | 68 | 0 | 369 |
| VIZ MEDIA | 0 | 270 | 0 | 270 |
| TITAN COMICS | 120 | 67 | 35 | 222 |
| EAGLEMOSS | 0 | 0 | 152 | 152 |
| OTHER | 1157 | 1518 | 315 | 2990 |
And we’re up at Comichron, with an overall dollar value and some historical estimates based on that 98 million comic figure. This is, believe it or not, the first time in 30+ years Diamond’s released a total comics sold number.
http://blog.comichron.com/2016/01/comics-shops-order-579-million-in.html
Those figures also confirm our guesses that periodicals are exactly 2/3 of Diamond’s print business, that 90% of periodical sales are in the Top 300s, and that only half the TPB sales are in the Top 300s.
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