recently out, here are the Archie Comics sales figures based on the Statements of Ownership, Management, and circulation the company is required to file in their publications. These numbers appeared in issues published between January 18 and February 15, 2012; the data was filed with the government on October 11, 2001.
(For comparison, I’ve done the same things for books published in 2010, published in 2009, published in 2008, and published in 2007.)
Before I get to the sales figures, though, I noticed a few changes in the Archie publication line while assembling these. The first is that the titles Archie & Friends, Betty, and Veronica are no longer published. (Veronica became Kevin Keller, while Betty‘s demise was rumored over a year ago.) Archie now publishes only five periodical series, and only one is monthly. That’s the flagship Archie. The magazine-format Life With Archie provides 10 issues a year, while Jughead, Betty & Veronica, and Kevin Keller come out bi-monthly, six times a year.
(Subscriptions, by the way, save you over a dollar an issue. You pay less than $2 a copy instead of the $2.99 cover price.)
I also noticed, while flipping through the issues to find these statements, that in the most recent issues, there is not a single outside advertisement. All the ads are for Archie collections, subscriptions, and their digital products. That’s a piece of income that they’re missing out on.
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
Life With Archie
37,165
27,314
Archie
15,466
13,440
Betty & Veronica
10,918
11,511
Kevin Keller
9,731
12,327
Jughead
7,869
6,965
The Kevin Keller figures are likely using Veronica‘s sales history; the last few issues of that title ran as a Kevin Keller miniseries. compared to last year’s figures, those numbers are better than I expected. Then, many of the periodicals sold a bit over 8,000; now, they’ve culled the low sellers, except for Jughead, to get the books over 10,000. Either Jughead will disappear soon; be revamped; or he’s someone in power’s favorite character.
However, half of the titles are showing a decline from the average to the most recent issue, with the Kevin Keller sales leap indicating interest in the company’s gay character. The recent debate over the gay wedding in Life With Archie #16 offered a much-needed bump to counteract its falling sales figures, with the issue selling out and back issues going for inflated prices. (My favorite statement on that whole situation is Ty Templeton’s comic strip — love his caricature of Jon Goldwater.)
Looking at the total published (Average, 12 months) and total published (Nearest Issue), we see the same problem as last year.
Title
Average
Nearest Issue
% sold of published (Nearest Issue)
Life With Archie
155,088
109,293
25%
Archie
40,675
39,578
34%
Betty & Veronica
24,782
27,281
42%
Kevin Keller
23,499
29,790
41%
Jughead
18,362
16,278
43%
As expected, with newsstand publishing, about 60% of the issues printed are unsold, with Life With Archie, with the widest distribution, having the worst ratio. This is expected but costs the company money.
Let’s look at digests. Last year they eliminated the single digests, so these are all double digests, which cost $3.99.
Title
Average
Nearest Issue
Archie
70,860
62,809
Betty & Veronica
67,719
63,316
World of Archie
57,850
52,997
Archie & Friends
57,188
53,502
Jughead
55,651
52,333
Betty & Veronica Friends
50,512
48,925
As expected, the digests outsell the issues by about five to one. but last year, the top-selling digest, Archie double Digest, was selling 85-95,000 copies an issue. This year, it’s declined greatly. Betty & Veronica double digest was selling 72-80,000 copies an issue and has a similar reduction. and they’re having to print 150,000 copies apiece to get these sales, with practically 2/3 of the print run going unsold.
Title
Average
Nearest Issue
% sold of published (Nearest Issue)
Archie
178,353
169,914
37%
Betty & Veronica
178,895
150,608
42%
World of Archie
153,560
141,695
37%
Archie & Friends
147,633
141,061
38%
Jughead
150,329
144,732
36%
Betty & Veronica Friends
131,285
129,290
38%
Last, here’s the title ranking, best- to worst-selling, based on nearest issue figures.
Betty & Veronica double Digest
Archie double Digest
Archie & friends double Digest
World of Archie double Digest
Jughead double Digest
Betty & Veronica friends double Digest
Life With Archie
Archie
Kevin Keller
Betty & Veronica
Jughead
Compared to last year, the two top spots switched, but that’s likely a statistical fluke, because the year’s average sales show Archie double digest on top. also last year, Life With Anull