All New 52 sales figures - April update

Here's a list from an Excel sheet I'm maintaining of the sales figures for each series in the New 52, for those who want to see how their favorite title is trending. The figures are taken from Diamond Comic Distributors, who keeps track of this sort of thing. In the following tables, assume the April issue is #19 unless otherwise noted.

Here's all 52, and if anyone wants additional back data for a series (I have the full run of everything since September 2011), I'll post it. To make the chart easier to read, I put in the ranking for every fifth series.

Note that Justice League of America and Aquaman have no estimates because there was no new issue on sale in April: for example, JLA #2 came out March 20, while #3 was May 8. Thus, there are only 50 series out of the New 52 to be tracked during April. Series in italics have already been cancelled and are finishing out their run.

Next month is when we'll find out May sales, including the first issues of The Green Team and The Movement.

No list!!

@tacos_kickass: There is now. The joys of modern technology: you can craft a list of sales figures, but good luck posting them. I'm also posting a bottom 12; that should be up in five minutes or so.

yaaaaay puters

Man, JLA really dipped in sales.

And the first two issues have both been very good. Its not like it brought in a bunch of hype and fgailed to deliver.

@KnightRise: I agree. The first two issues have been great. I'm really enjoying the book so far. I guess I'm just surprised that it has dropped over 200000 issues from #1 to #2. Those people don't know what they are missing.

Wow, looking at this, it becomes PAINFULLY clear why DC gives Batman preferential treatment and want him in as many books as possible. Thats just depressing.

Alot of those sales are from variant covers that buyers and collectors try to get their hands on. It happens every now and then with #1s.

Did Green Arrow's sales increase after Lemire and Sorrentino came on board?

You know the 200k drop is interesting there must be a reason why that happened, I don't believe its because 200k people think it sucked.

Maybe there's some rich nerd who bought them thinking they are gonna be worth tons of $$$ later? We need Batman to solve this mystery.

Update: after I pressed enter I noticed the other guy explained what happened.

Poor Hawkman. =/.. At least he is in the JLA...

I haven't looked up the official numbers, but I work in a comic shop and just from my perspective there, yes.

Wow, Superboy is barely holding in there. Get a new creative team, I love the character.

@xwraith: Yes, significantly. Here's the past five issues:

Nov. 2012 (#14) - 21,827

Dec. 2012 (#15) - 20,671

Jan. 2013 (#16) - 19,885

Feb. 2013 (#17) - 36,043

March 2013 (#18) - 28,080

Next month's figures will be interesting to see if they stabilize in the 25k area (which would mean a stable series) or if they slide down further.

Yes. They did return to a similar level in the following issue, but there was a dramatic increase in sales for the initial issue, creditable to Lemire/Sorrentino as well as a WCBH cover.

To further elaborate, sales figures are not a reflection of sales made within the stores, just those ordered by retailers. The current state of sales is a reflection of retailer anticipation, and series drops are compounded by natural anticipation of attrition causing additional readers to lose faith in a series and not pick up subsequent issues. All March sales orders would have been placed well in advance of the release of JLA #1. Typically retailers maintain 60% of their ordering figures; more likely than not, retailers followed a similar schematic for this, deliberately subtracting a greater amount due to an anticipated feeling that the additional state variants would be delivered only to dedicated fans (ie only approximately 150,000 copies would have made it into the hands of individual hands, dropping 50,000 to compensate as a sales loss.

You're right. I bought the American flag and New York flag variants.

Aww....I'm sad to see Dial H so low. It's my favorite thing coming out of DC right now. ;_;

Well, to see it from the glass half full side... it has made it this long, far longer than I think we could've reasonably anticipated before its active debut. But it has shed readers way way way too fast. Truth be told, I think it might actually intimidate some readers, or at least thin out the herd of those who are looking for a casual ride. I find the book to be very (surprisingly) cerebral, and in order to really get my enjoyment out of it I have to change my mindset and even go back to review. While it makes the experience worthwhile for me, I can see it getting a lot of readers to jump ship, really fast. I'm curious to see how the informal Flash tie-in this month will effect sales.

Batman is still the carrier. Wow, detective is really doing good since the creative shift. Batwing is in the danger zone :( I was gonna go for it lol. And Phantom Stranger too.

Six of the top ten has Batman and people ask why there's so many Batman titles.

Batman comics are doing great as expected and Aquaman is doing well so I'm happy

Man :c I want Katana and All Star Westerns to sell well.

That's pretty interesting. Out of curiosity, does anyone know what numbers 11, 12, and 13 are in terms of sales? Batman Inc is going out in July so I wonder which series will bump itself up into the top ten.

@supbatz: 11 and 12 are on the table; number 13 is (surprise!) a Bat-book: Nightwing (48,223 issues ordered in March).

Number 13 on the lowest list is Suicide Squad (25,232).

Batman owns.

I'm still annoyed that I, Vampire has been cancelled its far better than some of the top titles....

I can't believe people aren't taking a liking to "Threshold". I really like that book.

after what Nocenti and Didio have done to my Creeper, i want Katana to fail so horribly that the stench of shame never disappears.

I agree now. I read it yesterday. Katana has a hero sucks. Getting taken down by some guys that were suppose to be "easy". Killer Corc is written like he is a dumb sh!t. And the dialouge is bad. I've made up my mind that I am dropping this title.

You didn't mention the sales stats of the two political books green something and the otherbook? Those are numbers I'm curious about! It eems you are a Whitesox fan , that's right cheer for the home team.

@evilvegeta74: The Green Team and The Movement. They're not posted since their numbers aren't out yet; sales figures lag a month behind the actual sales. Their numbers ought to be out in June, although it will take three or so issues to stabilize. (And yeah, White Sox fan.)

thats well belivable

Agreed. I think Katana is a pretty interesting character in and of herself. But her series has been horrible so far. It's a shame, the only two series in which she's has a prominent role in the New 52 have been pretty bad.

As far as the JLA drop off. My LCBS has a bundle of all 52 variant covers... which I can't imagine will every sell but the store ordered it thinking they might and I imagine they were not the only store to do that.

@deaditegonzo: You talk about the success of Batman comics as if its a bad thing. Its a good thing that DC has a character that makes so much money, its a business after all...there is no need to be upset because your favorite character is not the most popular.

Indeed. While the notion of a good, unique series getting cancelled is of course really sucky, it helps to bear in mind that were it not for how much money a character like Batman makes for DC, they probably wouldn't have even taken the risk of starting some of these less popular books.

It's kinda weird that Detective comics is selling so well while it is a mediocre title....i get that it is a batman title but still 0_o

@squalleon: I really loved the latest arc!

I very sad to see Demon Knights so low on sales

Well, I think I made it pretty clear in another thread, that I do think the success of Batman is a bad thing.

@deaditegonzo: You are free to think so, but it doesn't undermine what I said in the least.

@deaditegonzo: How can a characters success be a bad thing? Books that are not selling will be cancelled regardless of how successful Batman is. Characters will get more titles if they are proven to be able to sell enough to warrant additional titles. The success of one character in no way impedes that of others.

It is what Batman has done to the comic book landscape as a whole that I dont like, but I explained this in another thread and already had this debate, so im not starting it again here.

That fact that anything with a bat slapped on the cover will sell no matter how poorly written makes it possible for DC to put other titles on the shelf that may not make as much. Batman is the bread winner. So haters are gonna hate. And fools will "occupy" the batcave and protest the corporate batman machine. Whatever.

Updated for April. On a personal note, Batwoman gained a few hundred sales, to be at 31,536 on the month (good for 20th place, a couple spots up from the past couple months). I'm thrilled to see her holding steady even after losing JH Williams III's art.

Also, Threshold is crashing quickly.

It does look like DC needs to come out with lots of new titles soon altho dc seems to have settled for doing less than 52 titles per month to save on resources.

Not surprised by this