Diamond has released its Top 500 comics for 2009, and Flash: Rebirth comes in at #16.
Other issues come in at:
| Issue | Rank (Year) |
|---|---|
| Flash: Rebirth #1 | 16 |
| Flash: Rebirth #2 | 55 |
| Flash: Rebirth #3 | 75 |
| Blackest Night: The Flash #1 | 102 |
| Flash: Rebirth #4 | 107 |
| Flash: Rebirth #5 | 125 |
Meanwhile, ICv2 has posted sales estimates for December 2009. We already knew Blackest Night: The Flash #1 was ranked #5 for the month, and the actual sales estimate comes in at 80,313 copies sold. For comparison:
| Issue | Rank (Month) | Units Sold | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flash: Rebirth #1 | 2 | 102,429 | +286.6% |
| Flash: Rebirth #2 | 4 | 86,183 | -15.9% |
| Flash: Rebirth #3 | 10 | 83,086 | -3.6% |
| Flash: Rebirth #4 | 14 | 78,107 | -6.0% |
| Flash: Rebirth #5 | 9 | 73,875 | -5.4% |
| Blackest Night: The Flash #1 | 5 | 80,313 | +8.7% |
Yes: that’s right. Blackest Night: The Flash outsold the last two issues of Flash: Rebirth. Most likely one of two things is happening:
- The Blackest Night brand is helping sales, bringing in readers who otherwise wouldn’t be reading a Flash solo book.
- Flash fans who have gotten tired of waiting for Flash: Rebirth are picking up Blackest Night: Flash.
Probably both, though I wouldn’t try to guess which factor is more significant.
Update: The Beat has posted their analysis of DC’s December sales.
The Guys at Comic Chron released the actual final sales estimates for the top 500 comics of the year 2009 and it’s a very interesting read. The cool thing about this list is that it represents the closest we’ll get to knowing the actual number for each comic sold for the year something that only DC or Marvel themselves know.
Anyways, one thing you’ll notice is that alot of comics got a boost of several thousand more copies than were reported. This is because they were able to look at all the sales numbers for the year and not just the top 300 comics list.
As far as Flash Rebirth goes the here are the final actual sales numbers…
16. Flash Rebirth 1-118,500
55. Flash Rebirth 2-93,500
75. Flash Rebirth 3-87,800
107. Flash Rebirth 4-78,900
125. Flash Rebirth 5 $2.99 DC 74,400
You can check out their entire list here…
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2009.html
They also put out a top 300 comics of the decade list with the final sales numbers, so anyone interested to see how Flash has done sales wise over the last 10 years can check that out here…
http://www.comichron.com/vitalstatistics/topcomics2000s.html
Interesting how the only Flash book to break that list starred Bart.