DC Comics defeated Marvel Comics in March, claiming a higher market share and seven spots in the Direct Market Top 10, including the number-one spot.
DC owned the first six positions in the top 10, with Detective Comics #1000 first, and the next five in order being The Batman Who Laughs: Grim Knight, Doomsday Clock #9, Batman #67 and 66, and Heroes in Crisis. Marvel did not appear in the top 10 until number 7, with Amazing Spider-Man #7, followed by Amazing Spider-Man #8, then Spider-Man: City at War at number 9. DC’s Justice League #20 rounded out the top 10. The biggest market share in dollars went to DC with 36.20 percent, with Marvel second at 34.46 percent.
Marvel and DC, as the top two comics companies, routinely trade the number one and two market share positions. Case in point: Marvel won March in unit sales, with 40.94 percent of unit share to DC’s 34 percent. The closest competitors in market share was Image Comics with 9.63 percent and Dark Horse with 3.26 percent, according to Diamond Comics Distributors (via: CBR)
The comic book market is doing better in 2019 than 2018, as March 2019's sales were $5 million higher than March 2018's. Publishers did better in March than the previous month, as well; comic book sales (in dollars) were up 26.89 percent from February and graphic novel sales were up 21.20 percent. Toy sales did not share the wealth, however, as they were down 8.4 percent in March, according to the report.
The first title to break DC’s chart dominance in March was The Walking Dead Vol. 31: The Rotten Core, which topped the graphic novel unit sales charts. The Walking Dead publisher Image Comics dominated that chart with six out of the top 10, including collections from Monstress, The Wicked and the Divine, Seven to Eternity, and two volumes of Saga. DC grabbed the remaining four: the Batman hardcover, Batman Vol. 9: The Tyrant Wing, and original graphic novels The Super Sons: The Polarshield Project and Mera: Tidebreaker. Dollar-wise, however, The Walking Dead only made it to third place, with the Batman 80th anniversary hardcover and Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan beating it out. Both titles had a higher sale price than The Walking Dead.
The race for the top spot is difficult to handicap. This month, DC had Batman's anniversary as a top selling point, while Marvel had a strong contender in the high-price point ($125) collection of rarely-reprinted Conan issues. Next month, both companies could reverse positions - or it's just as likely that The Walking Dead could take a bite out of them both.
Source: Diamond Comic Distributors, CBR