Diamond has released its prelimiary official year end stats for 2015, and like the unofficial one, Star Wars #1 was the top seller of the year among periodicals, while Saga Vol. 4 led among graphic novels and took the top three spots on the chart. Star Wars #1 was the best-selling single issue in over two decades.

Comics periodical sales were up 8.99% for the year, while graphic novel sales rose by 3.14%. Overall, sales increased by 7.17%, and Diamond sold over 98 million comic books, up 6 million from 2014. They shipped just over 8 million graphic novels.

Now, you may be wondering how this compares to last year. It’s actually up from 2014, when annual sales increased only 4.39%, with comics up 4.03% and GNs up 5.18%. So despite the feelings of unease and doom we’ve been noting, the numbers don’t support a sense of disaster. Doesn’t mean the numbers aren’t showing it, however.

Marvel was the #1 publisher again, beating DC by 13 points in dollars and 14 in units. Image remained at #3. Again, copmparing this to 2014, Marvel’s margin was only 6 points in dollars and a scant 4 in units. Images percentages are almost exactly the same.

Here’s the rest of the charts:

2015 TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHER DOLLAR SHARE UNIT SHARE MARVEL COMICS 38.74% 41.82% DC ENTERTAINMENT 25.75% 27.35% IMAGE COMICS 9.93% 10.70% IDW PUBLISHING 5.59% 4.87% DARK HORSE COMICS 3.79% 3.10% BOOM! STUDIOS 2.28% 2.46% DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 1.99% 1.79% TITAN COMICS 1.03% 0.95% EAGLEMOSS PUBLICATIONS 0.94% 0.20% VIZ MEDIA 0.93% 0.35% OTHER NON-TOP 10 9.00% 6.41%

2015 TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE ITEM CODE VENDOR 1 STAR WARS #1 $4.99 AUG158711-M MARVEL COMICS 2 SECRET WARS #1 $4.99 JUL158548-M MARVEL COMICS 3 BRAVEST WARRIORS: TALES FROM HOLO JOHN #1 $4.99 MAR151109-M BOOM! STUDIOS 4 ORPHAN BLACK #1 $3.99 DEC140468-M IDW PUBLISHING 5 DARK KNIGHT III: THE MASTER RACE #1 $5.99 SEP150179-M DC COMICS 6 STAR WARS VADER DOWN #1 $4.99 SEP150827-M MARVEL COMICS 7 DARTH VADER #1 $4.99 AUG158716-M MARVEL COMICS 8 SPIDER-GWEN #1 $3.99 APR158276-M MARVEL COMICS 9 INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1 $3.99 JUL150696-M MARVEL COMICS 10 PRINCESS LEIA #1 $3.99 JAN150733-M MARVEL COMICS

2015 TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK DESCRIPTION PRICE ITEM CODE VENDOR 1 SAGA VOLUME 4 TP (MR) $14.99 OCT140644 IMAGE COMICS 2 SAGA VOLUME 1 TP (MR) $9.99 AUG120491 IMAGE COMICS 3 SAGA VOLUME 5 TP (MR) $14.99 JUL150565 IMAGE COMICS 4 CIVIL WAR TP $24.99 JAN072436 MARVEL COMICS 5 THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 23: WHISPERS INTO SCREAMS TP $14.99 FEB150545 IMAGE COMICS 6 BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL EDITION HC $17.99 NOV070226 DC COMICS 7 SAGA VOLUME 2 TP (MR) $14.99 APR130443 IMAGE COMICS 8 THE WALKING DEAD VOL. 1: DAYS GONE BYE TP $14.99 NOV128157-M IMAGE COMICS 9 SAGA VOLUME 3 TP (MR) $14.99 JAN140556 IMAGE COMICS 10 STAR WARS VOLUME 1: SKYWALKER STRIKES TP $19.99 MAY150811 MARVEL COMICS

2015 NUMBER OF TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER COMICS GRAPHIC NOVELS MAGAZINES TOTAL MARVEL COMICS 917 390 2 1309 DC ENTERTAINMENT 963 331 6 1300 IMAGE COMICS 773 187 0 960 IDW PUBLISHING 527 265 0 792 DARK HORSE COMICS 378 234 0 612 BOOM ENTERTAINMENT 385 94 0 479 DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT 301 68 0 369 VIZ MEDIA 0 270 0 270 TITAN COMICS 120 67 35 222 EAGLEMOSS 0 0 152 152 OTHER 1157 1518 315 2990