With Comic-Con International: San Diego starting up today, the final sales report for June is now out from Diamond Comic Distributors,
and as reported here on Monday, the first half of the year closed out
very strongly. Click to see the sales estimates for comics ordered in June 2015.
(Click also to see our end-of-year 2014 report with ICV2, encompassing the book trade and digital.)
Second
quarter comics and graphic orders were more than 20% higher than in the
first quarter, and at $154.32 million, set a Diamond Exclusive Era
record for orders in a quarter. Retailers bought 23.86 million copies of
the Top 300 comic books in the quarter, which sets a record going back
to the fourth quarter of 1997. (Click to see other modern-era sales records.)
Secret Wars #3 led the market with more than 218,000 copies shipped. Last month’s leader, Secret Wars #1, had an additional 8,000 copies ship in June, bringing the total so far to more than 535,000. Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1 also topped 200,000 copies, with the Justice League of America relaunch and Thors debuting at approximately 151,000 and 114,850 respectively.
There were no Loot Crate comics last month, but there were three issues in the June Comic Block, a new service from Nerd Block. Marvel’s Groot #1 placed tenth, while IDW’s Ghostbusters Get Real #1 and Titan’s 21st Century Tank Girl #1
also were included. It’s not clear whether these titles were shipped to
Comic Block through Diamond, but as that’s Marvel and IDW’s practice
with Loot Crate books, that seems possible. 21st Century Tank Girl
had estimated sales of just over 10,000 copies, so if Comic Block sales
are counted in there, the service is certainly not impacting the charts
in the way that Loot Crate does as yet.
Graphic novel
unit sales were up greatly, with a wide gap separating unit and dollar
sales; while this usually means deep discounting — which we did see this month on a range of titles — an increasing factor
is the large number of graphic novels (like the market-leading Wytches) at the $9.99 price point.
The aggregate changes are as follows:
TOP 300 COMICS UNIT SALES
June 2015: 7.47 million copies
Versus 1 year ago this month: +16%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +22%
Versus 10 years ago this month: +6%
Versus 15 years ago this month: +21%
2nd Quarter 2015: 23.86 million copies, +19% vs. Q2 2014
YEAR TO DATE: 44.63 million copies, +16% vs. 2014, +28% vs. 2010, +22% vs. 2005, +28% vs. 2000
ALL COMICS UNIT SALES
June 2015 versus one year ago this month: +14.66%
YEAR TO DATE: +16.52%
June 2015: $28.88 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: +22%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +32%
Versus 10 years ago this month: +39%
Versus 15 years ago this month: +62%
2nd Quarter 2015: $95.94 million, +25% vs. Q2 2014
YEAR TO DATE: $175.57 million, +21% vs. 2014, +44% vs. 2010, +67% vs. 2005, +88% vs. 2000
ALL COMICS DOLLAR SALES
June 2015 versus one year ago this month: +16.34%
YEAR TO DATE: +16.46%
March 2015: $8.11 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: +17%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +11%
Versus 10 years ago this month, just the Top 100 vs. the Top 100: +18%
Versus 15 years ago this month, just the Top 25 vs. the Top 25: +13%
2nd Quarter 2015: $43.21 million, +2% vs. Q2 2014
YEAR TO DATE: $18.82 million, -9% vs. 2014
ALL TRADE PAPERBACK SALES
June 2015 versus one year ago this month: +18.03%
YEAR TO DATE: +5.85%
June 2015: $36.99 million
Versus 1 year ago this month: +21%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +15%
Versus 10 years ago this month, counting just the Top 100 TPBs: +24%
Versus 15 years ago this month, counting just the Top 25 TPBs: +72%
2nd Quarter 2015: $120.33 million, +22% vs. Q2 2014
YEAR TO DATE: $218.75 million, +17% vs. 2014
ALL COMICS AND TRADE PAPERBACK SALES
June 2015 versus one year ago this month: +16.88%
YEAR TO DATE: +13.07%
June 2015: approximately $48.72 million (subject to revision)
Versus 1 year ago this month: +17%
Versus 5 years ago this month: +24%
Versus 10 years ago this month: +48%
2nd Quarter 2015: $154.32 million, +16% vs. Q2 2014
YEAR TO DATE: $282.22 million, +13% vs. 2014
RELEASES
New comic books released: 453
New graphic novels released: 288
New magazines released: 39
All new releases: 780
The average comic book in the Top 300 cost $3.79; the average comic book
retailers ordered cost $3.86. The median and most common price for comics offered was $3.99. Click to see comics prices across time.
With the addition of June, there are now more than 125,000 comics sales figures on Comichron. And more to come…
Comichron founder John Jackson Miller has tracked the comics industry for more than 25 years, including a decade editing the industry’s retail trade magazine; he is the author of several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books for various franchises.
He is the author of novels including Star Wars: Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Dawn, Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War, and his upcoming release, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The High Country. Read more about them at his fiction site.
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