Brett Schenker, whose research into Facebook comics demographics created a benchmkar fo what turned out to be The Year of the Women, has taken a look at age and sex breakdowns for comics from 2013-2015. In January, Schenker reported a record 32 million Facebook fans for comics, a 4 million rise like due to “the massive jump in Marvel’s page due to their consolidating various pages into one.”
The trendline in the above graphic also shows male/female readers approaching a 50% split. Women now account for 48.13% and men account for 50.63%.
Setting aside how many of those 32 million people have ever brought a comic, if you’re wondering why comics underwent such a seismic shift in audience in the last 12 months, this is part of the reason.
Check out all of Schenker’s ongoing analysis here.
The real proof is how many of those buy comics, and how much spent.
That’s great news but where are comics for this audience? My daughter is nine and her options seem to be primarily my little pony or Archie – both are fine attempts to sell to this market but what she and her friends want is monster high and ever after high. For girls in their teens what is there? Tynion’s The Woods is good but why aren’t we seeing more YA comics like that.
There’s plenty out there for everyone. The lack of interest on these so-called fans when it comes to buy is when people start blaming creators and retailers. There are plenty of people going out of their way to attract new readers, who aren’t usually new buyers. This is an old story. Anyone with any experience selling knows this. Anyone can “like” something on Facebook.
I think you meant “Updated Facebook demographics show weird, ancient key that unlocks vault containing Elder Gods”?
@James, I think the real proof of the headline (male/female comics likers approaching parity) is proven by the data about likes. Data on who bought what and how much would prove a different statement.
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