2023 comic sales down 7% from last year
ICv2 has released its annual North American comics sales report for 2023. Below’s a look at 2023 estimated overall comic sales, as well as infographics for said sales figures.
One change in ICv2’s figures: they’re no longer reporting digital comic sales. While they note subscription services like Marvel Unlimited, DC Universe Infinite, etc. are where the main action is digitally, A) they don’t have numbers for said services (who treat their figures like they’re state secrets), and B) Amazon all but destroying Comixology in 2022 means they don’t have any figures for those, either. (Again, thanks for nothing, Amazon.)
The main change over 2022 is that comic sales declined by 7% to $1.83 billion (down from $2.01 billion in 2022). Said decline is mainly attributed to the post-pandemic-peak shift in spending habits. However, sales are still up from where they were in 2019, by a whopping 70% (from $1.1 billion).
2023 comic sales information
Most of last year’s criteria once again applies:
Direct market figures are based on a sampling of ComicHub point-of-sale reports; direct market sales figures are now harder to come by, since the breakup of Diamond’s distribution monopoly. Figures for book channels are from Circana BookScan.
Book channel information includes sales from bookstores (like Barnes and Noble), online retailers (like Amazon), mass market retailers (like Target and Walmart), locally owned bookstores, etc. Library purchases and digital services like Hoopla aren’t included; neither are Scholastic book fairs.
The “Other channels” category consists of fundraising channels like Kickstarter. It also presumably contains Archie, the only major comic publisher still available through newsstands via their digests.
Here’s ICv2’s infographics detailing 2023 comic sales.
Statistics by percentage
Breaking down the above statistics by percentages (numbers below are rounded):
Sales by channel
Book channels: 61.4%
Comic stores: 36.2%
Other channels: 2.4%
Sales by format
Graphic novels: 78.0%
Comic books: 22.0%
Channel changes (by percentage) from 2022
Book channels: -7.3%
Comic stores: -8.2%
Other channels: +28.6%
Format changes (by percentage) from 2022
Graphic novels: -7.3%
Comic books: -5.7%
My thoughts
As noted above, everything’s in a decline from the highs of the previous two years. Well, almost everything: the only rise over 2022 is the “Other channels” category, which I assume is on the strength of Kickstarter campaigns and the like. Meanwhile, I’m wondering how well Archie’s doing these days; “Riverdale” has ended its run; their digests now cost $10 (or almost what a graphic novel would run); and the children’s comic boom means they’re no longer the main or only choice for kids’ comics.
Still, overall trends are still holding strong. Book channels and not comic shops still make up the majority of comic sales, and graphic novels outsell single issue comics. While DC and Marvel certainly still dominate in the direct market (i.e. comic shops), as I wrote in my book channel post, they’re pretty much also-rans as far as bookstores are concerned.