After topping $2 billion for the first time in 2021, sales of comics and graphic novels in North American fell 7% to $1.87 billion in 2023, from $2.01 billion in 2022, according to estimates from ICv2.
Milton Griepp, president of ICv2, which has been tracking sales of comics and graphic novels for years, put the decline in perspective. "A single-digit percentage decline in the North American comics and graphic novel market in 2023 is a huge win," Griepp said, noting that sales in 2023 were still well above the $1.1 billion recorded in pre-pandemic 2019. But while this was the first decline in sales since the pandemic, 2023 figures also trailed the $1.91 billion posted in 2021 and again in 2020.
According to the ICv2 report, trends in sales by format and channel did not change much in 2023 compared to 2022. By format, graphic novel sales were down 7%, to $1.45 billion, and sales of periodicals fell 6%, to $410 million. By channel, comic stores and the book channel, which includes online retailers like Amazon, declined by similar amounts: 8% for comic stores, and 7% for the book channel. Unlike data from the Association of American Publishers, which records sales to vendors, all print figures in the ICv2 report are calculated based on the full retail price of books, and do not account for discounting or markup.
A large part of the report describes how ICv2 has adapted its methodology in recording sales as distribution has fragmented and information on direct market sales has become more difficult to obtain. For comic stores, the analysis now uses data based on sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at over 125 stores. Griepp acknowledges that it is a small sample size, but he believes trends in the ComicHub stores are generally reflective of overall trends.
The new report also does not include download-to-own sales of digital comics as it had in the past, and Griepp removed estimates from previous years to provide comparability. (Last year, ICv2 estimated $155 million in digital download sales for 2022.) "The most important reason for making that change is that subscriptions for online access to comics are comprising an increasing part in digital sales," Griepp explained, adding a recurring refrain from those trying to better understand market trends, "and that’s a part of the market that's opaque to the public, and to us."
