Despite continued strong sales from DC Comics' two event series, Dark Nights: Metal and Doomsday Clock and its still dominant Batman franchise, plus Marvel's Phoenix Resurrection event and Spider-Man titles, December 2017 closed out the year as a down month for the Direct Market. DC accounted for six of the top ten best selling comics for the month, including the top two spots, with Marvel publishing the other four.
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While DC took over the top spot in dollars, accounting for 34.54% of the Direct Market's overall sales, Marvel remained the number one publisher when it comes to units sold, with a 38.81% market share compared to DC's 37.65%. Marvel accounted for 33.80% of the month's dollar sales.
Overall, the Direct Market's individual issue sales declined 16.13% in dollars and 14.05% in units versus November 2017. Graphic Novels were down as well, 21.95% and 10.88%. All told, the market dropped 18.11% in dollars and 13.77% in units from the previous month.
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The picture gets no prettier when you compare the month to December 2016. Overall, the market declined 14.57% in dollars and a whopping 23.23% in unit sales compared to the same month a year earlier.
The complete sales charts and CBR's Mayo Report analysis will arrive early next week.