400,000 comics sold in one week: this is the biggest comic success of 2024

There are those who want to declare the comic book world dead, claiming that young people no longer buy physical copies, but the truth is that year after year the figures show otherwise. For example, in 2015, the number of Star Wars exceeded one million sold in the United States alone, and this year, Transformers sold out its entire run, becoming the rival to beat. Until the king arrived, of course, dressed in black and with a new suit: Batman has triumphed, as expected.

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Gotham to Gotham

Of course, I’m talking about American comics, because when it comes to manga in Japan, there are several volumes that have surpassed the 400,000 copies of the first issue of Absolute Batman, from volume 108 of One Piece (1.5 million copies) to volume 14 of Spy X Family (812,000). However, it is noteworthy that a DC comic manages to take this spot in extremis, especially when they compete against themselves in their digital version, on the DC Universe app, and against hundreds of alternatives.

Yes, the comic book industry may not be at its best (nor is the manga industry, whose paper compilation magazines have been losing thousands and thousands of followers over the past few years), but as long as there are hits like Absolute Batman or Ultimate Spiderman, which always hover around the top spots, there will still be an industry. It’s just likely that neither Marvel nor DC want to take more risks and will stick to what everyone already knows. Just like in movies, series, and video games: people think they want surprises, but they buy comfort.

Additionally, it should be noted that the superhero comic market has several lives. First in single issues, then in collected volumes, then in another volume and different editions until whoever wants to have it already has it, including several digital issues. And seriously: Who here has sold more than 400,000 units of something they own in their lifetime? It is, at the very least, worthy of applause.

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