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2017 Comic Book Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Comics Shipped to North American Comics Shops

Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors





OVERALL North American Dollar Sales for Diamond's Comics,

Graphic Novels, and Magazines for the year

around $522.25 Million

(down 10% year-over-year)

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After five consecutive years of growth following DC's late 2011 "New 52" reboot, the Direct Market gave back a sizable portion of those gains in 2017. Retailer orders for comics, graphic novels, and magazines fell 10% to $522.25 million, the largest percentage drop seen since 1998. Sales volume remained above 2013 levels, however, and the market was considerably larger than it was during the previous market low.



2017 started out slightly off in a January that saw Marvel offer a 10% overship on its entire new comics line. February brought Image's 25th anniversary, and its 25-cent Walking Dead issue which sold more than 750,000 copies. In March, a $9.99 Amazing Spider-Man issue became the most expensive comic book ever to top the charts, helping to close out the quarter just 3% off the previous year's pace.



Marvel's slow start to 2017 worsened in April as Secret Empire #0 released; while the market as a whole was down year-to-date, the market not including Marvel was up. Both Marvel and the market excluding Marvel were up in May, which, having an extra week than the same month the previous year, provided a welcome rebound. Those gains were given back in a weak June, which was up against the best month in 20 years.



By July, the slowdown accelerated, with DC joining Marvel in being behind its 2016 pace due to comparsions with the previous year's Rebirth launch. In August the comparatives were at their toughest, but DC released the best-selling issue of the year thus far in Dark Nights: Metal #1. September closed out the worst quarter year-over-year in more than a decade with the market beginning to claw its way back, thanks in part to the release of Marvel Legacy #1 and the continuation of DC's Dark Multiverse event.



October brought the full line of Legacy lenticular-cover releases from Marvel and was an improved month over September, despite not being able to keep pace with the big Rebirth month from a year before. DC had a strong month in November, finally beating its Rebirth comparatives with the release of Doomsday Clock #1—but slower sales for other publishers limited the help it could provide. DC improved on its December orders from the previous year, but many other publishers suffered in comparison, bringing a rough year to a lackluster close.



The final rankings for all comics and trade paperbacks during the year appear below.

Readers will find that the estimated final orders in the year for these comics exceed what was visible in the monthly charts; that's because of reorders for items that were not high enough to make the Top 300 lists in every month.



Note that, as in past years and consistent with monthly practice, Diamond divided items that had variant pricing into multiple entries. So Doomsday Clock #1 would really be in third at 261,246 copies had the lenticular and regular covers been fused. Likewise, Batman #21 would be fifth with 228,658 copies. The below chart preserves Diamond's original ordering; in the grid above and in various other locations on the site, we merge variant-priced editions.



You can find the first-month sales for these issues in the monthly charts; click one of the months at the bottom of the page or use the search tool at the top of the page to find the specific issue. Click to skip to the Top Graphic Novels for the year.





Items marked with asterisks had reported orders reduced by 10% to account for returnability.

Distributor charts are regional commodity reports, not measures of a work's total reach. Read our FAQ.

The links lead to current auctions for each issue on eBay. You can also find the books at your comics shop.

2017 Graphic Novel Sales to Comics Shops

Estimated Graphic Novels and Trade Paperbacks Shipped to North American Comics Shops Based on Reports from Diamond Comic Distributors

This list includes all items on Diamond's end-of-year chart.

The links lead to details about each title on Amazon. You can also find the books at your comics shop.



#1 #2 #3 #4

Diamond shipped 7.4 million graphic novels in the year. The Top 1,000, below, account for 3.65 million of them, or nearly half.





My analyses of final orders from Diamond Comic Distributors for individual months can be found here:



