DC’s New 52 Sales Report – How’d They Do REALLY?

By Eric Garneau 223 days ago

Earlier this week, Nerdy Nothings asked whether or not the DC relaunch was “worth it“. We concluded that it was, but without sales data to back that up, some of you may still be skeptical. Well, although sales numbers aren’t official yet, sales rankings are — this morning Diamond Comic Distributors released its list of the top 100 comics for September 2011, which includes the first issues of DC’s rebooted titles except for Justice League (which came out in August and sold very, very well). We thought our readers might be interested in seeing how these titles sold in comparison to one another, and just for fun we also thought we’d take a crack at estimating some actual sales numbers.

I cannot stress enough how unofficial the numbers below are. I’m basing them purely on mathematical extrapolation, and here’s how: every month Diamond publishes an index value for each comic, basically a percentile that comic sold in relation to whatever book sits at index number 100. Therefore, if, say, Detective Comics was indexed at 100, and we were told it moved 50,000 copies, a book indexed at 90 would have sold 45,000 units. Get it? Yeah, it’s needlessly Byzantine, but whatever… we can work with this.

We know from previous DC press releases that at least ten titles from DC (nine from September plus Justice League) topped 100,000 units sold, with the lowest ranking of those being Batgirl (which actually ended up 10th for September… Green Lantern: New Guardians snuck up there after DC’s initial release). So let’s conservatively estimate that Batgirl sold precisely 100,000 copies (technically 100,001, I guess). Diamond has that book indexed at 43.25. Meanwhile, Batman (the top seller) is indexed at 100. From there, I’ve figured out all the rest of the numbers you see below.

One final warning: please take these with a grain of salt. My numbers could be way, way off, and I’m more using them here to drive home comparison sales data. However, if my math is right, the numbers I’ve got below should at least be the bare minimum each book sold, and press releases also suggest that there weren’t many books to breach 200k (last I’d heard it was just Justice League and Action), so numbers probably aren’t that much higher. Regardless of their preciseness, though, I think the results of DC’s grand experiment are pretty interesting. What sold, what didn’t, and how well?

(It should be noted these numbers don’t include digital sales. Which, by the way — looks like having these books available same-day digital didn’t really hurt anything, did it?)

1. Batman – 231,216
2. Action Comics – 224,256
3. Green Lantern – 173,851
4. Flash – 158,614
5. Superman – 145,273
6. Detective Comics – 126,868
7. Batman: The Dark Knight – 120,740
8. Batman & Robin – 104,602
9. Green Lantern: New Guardians – 103,122
10. Batgirl – 100,001
11. Wonder Woman – 93,526
12. Green Lantern Corps – 91,746
13. Teen Titans – 90,405
14. Aquaman – 88,694
15. Batwoman – 88,625
16. Red Lanterns – 81,665
17. Justice League Dark – 77,133
18. Nightwing – 76,971
19. Justice League International – 74,960
20. Green Arrow – 68,116
21. Swamp Thing – 67,191
22. Supergirl – 66,335
23. Catwoman – 65,850
24. Red Hood and the Outlaws – 61,965
25. Birds of Prey – 61,919
26. Savage Hawkman – 61,804
27. Superboy – 61,410
28. Stormwatch – 56,925
28. Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men – 56,925
30. Legion of Superheroes – 55,653
31. Suicide Squad – 55,191
32. Deathstroke – 51,931
33. Legion Lost – 51,214
34. Animal Man – 50,867
35. Batwing – 50,775
36. DC Universe Presents – 50,474
37. Blue Beetle – 49,087
38. Captain Atom – 48,717
39. All-Star Western – 48,231
40. Hawk and Dove – 46,705
41. Resurrection Man – 46,104
42. Demon Knights – 45,942
43. Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE – 45,896
44. Mister Terrific – 45,780
45. Grifter – 45,526
46. Voodoo – 44,509
47. Blackhawks – 44,185
48. I, Vampire – 43,815
49. Static Shock – 41,734
50. Men of War – 41,410
51. OMAC – 41,202

Of course, these numbers don’t mean anything without something to compare them to, right? Well, how’s this for a comparison: DC’s worst-selling reboot book in September moved more units than Marvel’s Astonishing X-Men, and almost as many as Captain America. Would you ever have imagined OMAC to be anywhere on par with Cap? Further, pre-reboot sales for even top-tier DC books like Batman and Green Lantern Corps sat in the 50,000 range. Now, a book like Suicide Squad gives them a run for their money. Wow.

No one knows how long this honeymoon period will last, but it sure looks like DC knocked the first month out of the park.

tags: the new 52