2023 bookstore graphic novel sales: Viz and Scholastic are still the "Big Two"
Comics retailer and analyst Brian Hibbs has released his annual report on the state of 2023 book channel graphic novel and manga sales.
Overall, graphic novel sales were still strong. However, for the top 750 graphic novels, unit sales are down almost 20% from 2022 sales, while sales by dollar amounts are down by about 7%. (For all books sold, unit sales are down 15%, while dollar amounts are down 6%.) Though it’s less people turning on comics and more the overall decline in some product sales since the pandemic’s peak several years ago, plus a slight decline in manga sales (Western comics are flat).
Most of the figures comes from Circana (formerly NPD) Bookscan, which covers about 85% of all book channel sales. As for the other criteria, to quote the article:
Circana BookScan says “Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Costco, General Independents, Hastings, Target, BJ’s, K-Mart, Hudson Group, Meijers, Follett Books, Books-A-Million, CEO Read, Powells, Toys R Us, Shoprite, SuperValu, Sam’s Club and Walmart are among our many data providers.”
What sales do Circana BookScan not track? Among others, this would include libraries, schools, specialty stores (like most comic book stores!) and book clubs and fairs. Circana BookScan does not track sales at most independent bookstores. For many books those are very very important sales channels, and thus, Circana BookScan under-reports by some potentially significant degree, and don’t, in any way, represent all physical book sales or even all “book stores” selling comic book material.
As such, this report doesn’t cover things like Scholastic Book Fairs, or the direct market (i.e. comic book shops).
While the report isn’t perfect (Hibbs covers the various possible flaws in his report), it’s the best thing available for an idea of how comic sales outside of digital or the direct market are doing.
The 10 best-selling graphic novels of 2023
Below are the 10 top-selling graphic novels (in book channels) in 2023:
Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea (vol. 11) (Scholastic), by Dav Pilkey; 1,087,771 sold
Cat Kid Comic Club: Collaborations (vol. 4) (Scholastic), by Dav Pilkey; 323,097 sold
Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers (vol. 5) (Scholastic), by Dav Pilkey; 279,045 sold
Moon Rising (Wings of Fire, vol. 6) (Scholastic), by Tui T. Sutherland; 249,797 sold
Mary Anne’s Bad Luck Mystery (The Baby-Sitters Club, vol. 13) (Scholastic), by Cynthia Yuan Cheng; 218,723 sold
Dog Man: Grime and Punishment (vol. 9) (Scholastic), by Dav Pilkey; 212,889 sold
Dog Man: Mothering Heights (vol. 10) (Scholastic), by Dav Pilkey; 205,922 sold
Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls (vol. 7) (Scholastic), by Dav Pilkey; 178,885 sold
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Fazbear Frights Graphic Novel Collection Vol. 1 (series vol. 4) (Scholastic), by Scott Cawthon; 176,682 sold
The Action Bible: God’s Redemptive Story (David C. Cook), by Sergio Cariello; 167,407 sold
As seen above, the top sellers are almost all aimed at children/younger readers, and none of them feature traditional superheroes. (More on DC and Marvel below.) The next ten entries (listed in the article) are similar, though a few adult-oriented entries start appearing (such as “TMNT: The Last Ronin” at #13, the highest-selling direct market-aimed entry).
As usual, the “Dog Man” series and its “Cat Kid” spin-off are the top sellers. “The Baby-Sitters Club” graphic novels (and its “Little Sister” spin-off) are also selling well, along with “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”
While none made the top 10, manga also still dominates in sales, with the top-selling volume clocking in at #12 (“Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba,” vol. 1).
The one outlier this year is a religious entry, “The Action Bible: God’s Redemptive Story,” a graphic novel adaptation of the Old Testament. I assume it did well in religious venues?
The top 10 publishers of 2023
Here are the top 10 publishers (by estimated dollar amounts, in millions) for 2023. Percentage of overall sales are in parentheses. Note there’s some rounding in the numbers; for instance, Dark Horse actually earned slightly more than Penguin Random House.
Overall, 2023 book channel graphic novel sales came in at $812.6 million, down 6% from 2022. Meanwhile, 2023 saw 44.7 million units sold, down 15% from 2022.
Viz Media $205.3 (25.3%)
Scholastic $136.1 (16.8%)
Dark Horse $49.9 (6.1%)
Penguin Random House: $49.9 (6.1%)
Kodansha: $49.8 (6.1%)
Yen Press: $44.6 (5.5%)
DC Comics: $33.2 (4.1%)
Seven Seas: $32.3 (4%)
HarperCollins: $30.6 (3.8%)
Marvel: $28.2 (3.5%)
Viz and Scholastic still dominate in the book channel space as the “Big Two,” easily eclipsing everyone else, including mainstays DC Comics and Marvel (who combined pull in less than half of what Scholastic earned). Viz made up a fourth of all book channel sales in 2023 by itself; Viz and Scholastic combined earned a whopping 42% of all book channel comic sales.
Dark Horse’s strong showing is mainly driven by their manga side, the “Berserk” title in particular.
Obligatory Marvel and DC Comics remarks
As I’ve noted above, Marvel and DC Comics are anything but super-powered when it comes to book channel sales; here, superheroes are just another genre, and one that seems more popular from other publishers (“My Hero Academia,” etc.) at that. Combined, DC and Marvel earned 7.6% of book channel sales in 2023.
The five top-selling DC titles:
Teen Titans: Robin; 34,000 copies sold
Watchmen (paperback); 24,000 copies sold
Sandman (Book One); 23,000 copies sold
Batman: Year One; 19,000 copies sold
Batman ‘89; 16,000 sold
Meanwhile, the report only lists one title from Marvel (that made their top 750 titles sold cutoff), “Spider-Punk: Battle of the Banned” with 12,000 copies sold. However, Marvel’s licensed out their characters to other publishers, who’ve all done much better than Marvel itself:
"Spider-Man: Fake Red” (Viz Manga) sold 50,000 copies
“Spidey and His Amazing Friends: Team Spidey Does It All!” (Disney/Hyperion) sold 36,000 copies
“Miles Morales: Shock Waves” (Scholastic) sold 34,000 copies
“Spider-Man: Animals Assemble” (Abrams) sold 16,000 copies
There’s a lot to be written about why DC and Marvel-proper have such abysmal book channel sales. Yes, perennial sellers matter, but it says a lot (and not in a good way) that most of the top-selling canonical/direct market-aimed superhero material sold in bookstores was published when "The Cosby Show" and "Cheers" were the top TV shows. Meanwhile, the two top-selling graphic novels with DC/Marvel superheroes are manga (“Spider-Man: Fake Red”) or aimed at kids (“Spidey and His Amazing Friends”), as well as published within the past few years (vs. 30-40 years ago).
Various reasons (poor marketing, impenetrable continuity, etc.) aside, one factor I suspect hurts DC/Marvel in the book channel space: the general public mainly or exclusively associates superheroes with TV shows and movies, not comic books. That's despite TV shows and movies occasionally depicting superhero comics, mostly in a nostalgic sense (or like when the writers were kids): the Comic Book Guy on “The Simpsons”; the cast of “The Big Bang Theory”; and kids in TV shows/cartoons reading single-issue superhero comics (versus graphic novels, webcomics, or manga).
Anecdotally, conversations with my coworkers and family bear this out. Asking them about or bringing up Batman, Superman, or Spider-Man gets comments about the various movies; comics definitely aren't on their radar. Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, Curt Swan, and the like are all unknowns; Stan Lee’s the only comic-related name I’ve ever heard mentioned, and that’s only because of his MCU movie cameos.
Conclusion
Despite the post-pandemic-peak decline in sales, it’s clear graphic novels and manga are still popular. Even if the book channel space and the direct market are worlds apart in genres, formats, sales figures, etc.