Publisher Market Shares: 2018

Jan 16, 2019

Marvel Comics was the leading publisher in Retail Dollars and Units Shipped in 2018, based on total sales of comics, graphic novels and magazines to comic book specialty stores, according to Diamond Comic Distributors.

PUBLISHER MARKET SHARES
Based on Total Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in 2018

RETAIL MARKET SHARE

PUBLISHER

SHARE

MARVEL COMICS

38.24%

DC ENTERTAINMENT

30.04%

IMAGE COMICS

9.93%

IDW PUBLISHING

3.83%

DARK HORSE COMICS

2.92%

BOOM! STUDIOS

2.24%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

1.86%

VIZ MEDIA

1.22%

TITAN COMICS

0.87%

ONI PRESS

0.83%

VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT

0.66%

ARCHIE COMICS

0.58%

RANDOM HOUSE

0.55%

AFTERSHOCK COMICS

0.54%

HACHETTE BOOK GROUP USA

0.41%

ST. MARTINS PRESS

0.40%

AVATAR PRESS

0.38%

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

0.35%

ACTION LAB ENTERTAINMENT

0.33%

ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT

0.30%

OTHER NON-TOP 20

3.51%

UNIT MARKET SHARE

PUBLISHER

SHARE

MARVEL COMICS

40.40%

DC ENTERTAINMENT

33.82%

IMAGE COMICS

9.90%

IDW PUBLISHING

3.30%

DARK HORSE COMICS

2.10%

BOOM! STUDIOS

1.90%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

1.73%

VALIANT ENTERTAINMENT

0.71%

TITAN COMICS

0.61%

ARCHIE COMICS

0.55%

ONI PRESS

0.54%

AFTERSHOCK COMICS

0.51%

VIZ MEDIA

0.46%

ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT

0.29%

ACTION LAB ENTERTAINMENT

0.29%

AVATAR PRESS

0.21%

ASPEN MLT

0.17%

LION FORGE

0.17%

RANDOM HOUSE

0.14%

BLACK MASK COMICS

0.13%

OTHER NON-TOP 20

2.07%

Dollar Market Share – 2018

Unit Market Share – 2018

How does Diamond calculate the charts? It all starts at the comic book shop.

Data for Diamond’s sales charts — which includes the monthly market shares and all top product charts — are compiled by Diamond Comic Distributors from sales made to thousands of comic book specialty shops located in North America and around the world. Additional sales made to online merchants and other specialty retailers may be included as well.

Unit and dollar market shares are calculated based upon orders for comic books, graphic novels, and magazines invoiced and shipped to Diamond customers during any given month, which comprises pre-orders, advance reorders, and reorders, minus any copies that are received back from a title marked as returnable. Please note that comics marked with an asterisk (*) have had their reported quantities reduced due to retailer returnability, and thus may rank lower on the charts than their actual sales would reflect.

The New Titles Count Chart includes all titles that were invoiced by Diamond to retailers for the first time during the month and is not the official solicited title count for the month. Variant edition comic books and graphic novels at the same price point count as a single SKU. Variant edition comic books, lenticular covers, digital combo packs, and graphic novels at different price points count as separate SKUs for each edition.

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ABOUT DIAMOND COMIC DISTRIBUTORS (DCD) — Diamond is at the nexus of comics and pop culture merchandise. Based in Baltimore, MD, DCD is the world's largest distributor of English-language comic books and pop-culture related merchandise, servicing thousands of specialty retailers worldwide. For more information, visit Diamond on the web at www.diamondcomics.com.