All New 52 sales figures - April update

The one thing I find slightly confusing about the chart is that not all of these books are on their 20th issue, yet the column headers are numbered as if they were.

Anyhow, wow, they are bleeding readers on a lot of these titles. Batgirl in particular went south really quickly (though, speaking as one who stopped buying after DotF, that's likely because they were waiting for Simone to come back on a new arc -- so it'll be interesting to see whether the next issue sees a jump or not).

I say DC would be better of if it limited itself to 30-35 ongoings. 52 is far too many to have ongoing at once.

@akbogert: I see what you're saying. Is the current way clearer, now?

I've heard that the quality on Batgirl isn't that great, especially compared to her Bat-Brethren, and without the consistency to hold up her own title she basically coasts on the Batman collective zeitgeist. Sharp sale swings support that idea; for comparison Batwoman, who gets better reviews, hasn't changed by more than a few hundred any month in the past year, iirc. Although, Batwoman is also a much more isolated title, separate from the rest of the Bat Family, so that alone means she won't get DOTF type bumps like the others would. Still, that's a third of Batgirl's audience lost in three months.

@chisoxrox: Yes, definitely ^_^

The sharp sales swing has almost everything to do with the Simone firing snafoo, I'd guess. After the fallout of Death of the Family you had a guest writer (who I, as a fan of Simone, had no interest in), and Simone's first book back was finishing up the tale Fawkes began. So I haven't bought the last couple issues of it but do plan to buy the next one -- and these numbers reflect people like me thus far, so they may reflect me again by springing back up.

@akbogert: Ah yeah, that whole mess would do it too.

@chisoxrox: Granted, could be the book is just shedding. But those numbers re a tad extreme for just disinterest, I'd think.

@akbogert: Although the other Bat Family supporting characters aren't doing so hot after DOTF. Nightwing is down almost as sharply, and Red Hood has an even larger percentage drop from February to April (59,613 to 36,628).

@chisoxrox: Well I can't speak for Nightwing fans, although the decimation done to him (especially the death he had to deal with, and the complete destruction of everything he had spent the entire series working to build) would probably have turned me off as a reader. As for RHatO, you again have a new writer, though that will only explain an increase in readers henceforth, not the sharpness of the decline. I personally thought Lobdell's last two issues were among his best New 52 work overall, so it's a little disheartening to see them unappreciated.

Surprising. If I am reading this correctly DCs sales have gone up? That's good.

@lilben42: DC itself is down by 11.96% in terms of issues sold from March. Part of that is the calendar synching up so two of the top sellers (JLA and Aquaman) don't have an issue released during April, and those two put together would be ~120,000 issues out of the 274,000 issue drop, but still, not good.

@akbogert: Thanks for that explanation; that makes sense.

@chisoxrox: Oh okay.

@lilben42: Although Marvel is down 10.02%, so it's not like DC is slipping much in market share.

Lol, Batman still stomping the yard

I am surprised to see Green Lantern out-selling Superman. Good for them!

Looks like Threshold has been cancelled already. DC should've used Hal Jordan and Superman to lead the Threshold team.

@chisoxrox: Shouldn't Aquaman be in the top 12??

EDIT: Oh, wait, right. His #19 was delayed too

Hasn't Green Lantern outsold Superman for years??

Really? I didn't know that.

@zeeguy91: Good catch. I'll add Aquaman to the JLA note.

I updated the low seller list to remove the four just cancelled titles. I'm wondering, would this list be better listing all 52 series (with the cancelled ones in italics or something), or would that be too bulky of a table?

Where did the cancelled titles fall on the list. Just curious.

I'd like that. It's nice to have all of the information right in front of you. Even it it does seem a bit bulky.

@rich711: I'll put together a full list of all 52 titles today. The cancelled titles were #1 (Threshold), #2 (Demon Knights), #3 (Dial H), and #6 (Legion of Super Heroes) in lowest sales not yet cancelled.

@supbatz: Done. The list isn't as bulky as I thought; I've included every fifth rank to help break it up too.

How is it that I,vampire and firestorm are still in and Deathstroke and Team 7 are getting the axe? :(

BOO

The fact that more people read Vibe than Jonah Hex just shows there is something wrong in America.

@fury714: Note that both I, Vampire and Firestorm were cancelled several months ago, they're just running out their current arcs. All of the italicized series are axed. Batwing and Stormwatch are the lowest selling titles still having new issues ordered.

@rich711: Vibe is still riding the remnants of the new series bump. Next month it almost certainly will have slumped below Jonah Hex. But ASW is still too low selling to be out of danger.

I hate seeing that Nightwing is on a steady decline. Im sure its definitely safe from getting axed.....but still.

Whoops. Sorry. :D Batwing is still a bat-family book. And DC is very very bat-friendly lol. As for stormwatch I have no idea.

@fury714: Also, Batwing just had a complete revamp, down to changing the character and iirc bringing the title to Gotham. (So no more playing Toto in my head while flipping through Batwing in the comic store. I guess the rains down in Africaaaa...) Stormwatch, I don't know either. It's certainly low enough to be axed.

@dark_guyver: Nightwing, along with the other Bat Family books, is also coming off the huge DOTF spike in this table. Since last June, he's sold like this:

So compared to what he usually does before DOTF, he's doing OK. Same thing holds for Red Hood and Batgirl.

I don't understand why they are cancelling Legion after 40 years instead of trying a new writer on it. Paul Levitz has been working on that book for years if it is doing poorly maybe he has run out of ideas for it. Although, frankly, the other books he works on "World's Finest" and DC Comics Presents have been doing poorly as well. Maybe it's time to stop letting him kill titles.

DC, please don't cancel Constantine.

@igimancer: That's a pretty mild drop for Constantine, which bodes well for the series (notice how Katana and Vibe each lost about a third of their audience, compared to Constantine's one-fifth?) Next month if he's around 27,500/28,000 or higher, he's likely to hang in for a while.

Hopefully, Jim Starlin can save Stormwatch. That book was a real stinker, I was a fan of the Wildstorm run but found it super boring in the New52 and dropped it after issue 9. I'm a fan of Starlin and will pick up 19 & 20 and really hope he can turn it around and make it fit in the DC universe instead of weird mess it was before.

There is no way they are dropping Constantine. It sold well and it is Jeff Lemire. Lemire's Green Arrow & Constantine have been DC two best titles in the last couple months. Word will catch on and the numbers will go up, I bet.

A lot of people say detective comics sucks, yet it looks like it is selling good. Thats good I guess since I just bought the first 9 issues.

@al_capown: Detective Comics is selling well because he's the goddamn Batman. All five Batman titles (six including Justice League) are in the top eight selling series. Aside from Batman, Inc. which is ending as the writer planned in a couple of issues, the others are probably going to survive until whenever the next reboot is, years down the road.

@rich711: @chisoxrox: @igimancer: Constantine plays a significant role in Trinity War. I'm guessing that will help draw in readers who weren't otherwise paying attention.

Wow, I buy the top 6. Surprised Batman Inc finally passed BTDK. Not sure why Batgirl dropped so much. The storyline with her brother was great imo. Thanks for posting this.

@gettogaara: Some people were just buying the book for Simone. That drop may end up being recovered after the last issue.

@gettogaara: The Batgirl drop is her coming off the Death of the Family tie-in, which meant huge bumps for Nightwing, and Red Hood too. She's back to her normal issue numbers, and she should stay pretty much constant from here out (unless there's some other big tie-in). Here's what she's done in the past year.