{"id":3726,"date":"2018-11-12T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-07-30T16:30:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T21:30:33","slug":"october-2018-comics-sales-estimates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comichron.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/12\/october-2018-comics-sales-estimates\/","title":{"rendered":"October 2018 comics sales estimates online: Strong month for the midlist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As reported last week, comics and graphic novel orders through Diamond Comics Distributors<\/a><\/strong> ended October ahead for the year-to-date, thanks to one additional New Comic Book Day during the month. We also know the month benefited from particularly strong sales of middle-tier titles, thanks to Comichron estimates, just posted: click to see the comics sales estimates for October 2018<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

October was generally without the major launches that previous months saw; the major event for the month (besides the Venom<\/strong><\/em> movie) was Walking Dead Day<\/strong> on Oct. 13, which saw 15 different “blind bag” editions of previous issues (along with new variant covers) on offer. Batman<\/a><\/em> #56<\/a><\/strong>, with its foil edition, finished first in units and dollars among comic books, with Walking Dead<\/a><\/em> #1’s 15th anniversary edition<\/a><\/strong> in second. The issues landed around 107,500 and 106,100 copies shipped respectively in North America.<\/p>\n

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But as noted, the performance of titles in the midsection of the charts was strong. The 150th place title<\/a><\/b> shipped 17,305 copies, the third largest amount at that level in 20 years. The 200th place title<\/a><\/b> sold 12,184 copies, the fourth highest amount in two decades. The 50th, 100th, 400th, and 500th place titles all hit one-year highs.<\/p>\n

While in part due to more releases on offer after a year in which publishers had cut their slates back, it appears that, in the absence of a blockbuster title for the month, retailers may have spread their ordering dollars around to other issues. October’s total comics shipment of 8 million copies was the largest since May 2017<\/a><\/strong>, which had the 25\u00a2 Saga<\/a><\/em> #43<\/a><\/strong> padding the totals.<\/p>\n

The Batman: White Knight<\/i><\/b>\u00a0trade paperback topped 12,000 copies shipped in October. It’s now also nearly certain that Infinity Gauntlet <\/i><\/b>will be the top-ordered graphic novel from Diamond in 2018; this would be the first time Marvel led that list since Civil War<\/i><\/b> in 2007, after a five-year run with Saga<\/i><\/b> volumes in the lead. Click to see sales for comics and graphic novels for the year to date<\/a><\/b>; you can also see the top titles by year<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

The vital statistics for October:<\/p>\n

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