Archie Sales figures for 2012

continuing the tradition, but a lot later this year. That’s because, with a lot of of the titles publishing less frequently than monthly, I had to wait for all the figures to be available. even so, Life With Archie isn’t available yet for this year.

This is my sixth year compiling the Archie sales figures filed with the government from the Statements of Ownership, Management, and circulation the company is required to include in their publications. These numbers appeared in issues published between January 16 and March 6, 2013; the data was filed with the government on October 18, 2012. here are previous years for books:

published in 2011

published in 2010

published in 2009

published in 2008

published in 2007

Note that these figures don’t cover the videogame titles — Sonic, Mega man — or other non-Archie-character books. That’s because I don’t read those and so don’t have access to the data. Reportedly, those books do better than these. note also that the core Archie line is down to three periodicals — Archie, Betty & Veronica, and Kevin Keller — one magazine-format comic — Life With Archie — and six double digests — Archie, Archie & Friends, Betty & Veronica, Betty & Veronica Friends, Jughead, and world of Archie. Archie has just launched a double Double digest format, but that’s too early to include.

So, on to the numbers. For the single issues, these are the total Paid and/or requested circulation figures that Archie files with the government. The first number is the average No. Copies Each issue during preceding 12 Months; the second is No. Copies of single issue published Nearest to filing Date.

Title
Average
Nearest Issue
Total published (Nearest)
% sold of Published

Archie
15,292
12,462
32,229
39%

Betty & Veronica
9,095
9,210
25,272
36%

Kevin Keller
7,274
7,169
18,068
40%

Kevin Keller, which last year looked like a terrific success, has lost 40% of its sales bump from launch (last year = 12,327). That’s not surprising, as the curious likely got their fix from the first issue or so and may not want to follow a continuing series — especially considering that Kevin hasn’t been shown as actively dating or romantically interacting with other people very much (particularly when compared to how the core cast is portrayed).

Archie is down to three comic periodicals, with Jughead cancelled last year. only Archie appears monthly; the other two publish six issues a year. a lot of Archie issues went bimonthly in 2010.

Let’s chart these issues over the past six years, using average sales.

2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

Archie
27498
13259
11493
14413
15466
15292

Betty & Veronica
16982
11963
11283
11319
10918
9095

Veronica / Kevin Keller
14119
8230
7981
8756
9731
7274

Jughead
13645
10718
7823
8585
7869

Archie & Friends
14699
9388
8099
8850

Betty
12731
8864
8314
8952

Betty & Veronica Spectacular
12234
8891

Sabrina the teenage Witch
13534
7404

(Veronica became Kevin Keller in 2011, based on sales figure continuation, which is why that’s just one line. I still miss Sabrina.)

If, based on this chart and the title history, the cancellation line is around 9,000 copies sold, then Kevin Keller is likely hanging on for reasons other than sales (which is a fine strategy, if they believe in the title for outreach purposes or to give a new character time to catch on), and Betty & Veronica is in danger.

On to digests! These are all double Digests, considering that singles went away in 2010.

Title
Average
Nearest Issue
Total published (Nearest)
% sold of Published

Archie
45,641
47,851
169,754
28%

Archie & Friends
38,855
39,386
171,889
23%

Betty & Veronica
47,600
47,108
160,488
29%

Betty & Veronica Friends
38,278
37,176
156,410
24%

Jughead
37,812
36,924
168,359
22%

World of Archie
39,936
40,358
167,596
24%

On the plus side, these numbers are relatively stable, if you compare average sales to nearest issue. The titles aren’t rising or falling significantly. On the negative side, sales are down by 10,000-20,000 copies on all titles compared to last year, and they’ve gone from selling at least 36% of the print run to selling only a quarter of it. (Back in 2010, they were selling 40% of the print run.)

Here’s a chart of the double digests over the past six years, using average sales. Sadly, it’s a story of sales falling greatly over the past two years. odd how they kind of end up in the same place, isn’t it?

2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

Archie Double
96887
97584
87860
95236
70860
45641

Betty & Veronica Double
96971
100073
83032
80307
67719
47600

Archie’s friends ‘n’ Gals double /Archie & pals Double
85587
74430
69277
70806
57188
38855

Jughead Double
82108
82035
71570
70927
55651
37812

Betty & Veronica pals Double

51099
50512
38278

World of Archie Double

62822
57850
39936

Archie’s friends ‘n’ Gals became Archie & pals in 2010, which gave it a momentary sales boost. The single digests were all selling above 47,000 when they were cancelled (or whnull