Monday, June 21, 2004
Comparisons of Diamond May #s to Past Data...
Well, the numbers are up for May (though for some reason labeled as April). I've always been most interested in market share, so I decided to try to do some analysis of the numbers. Obvious, this is tricky since companies just have lighter months at times. Someone who is on the chart can just not be there the following month and then re-appear. To help combat that a bit, I did four different charts. The first is from April to May, the second is January to May, the third is last May to this May, and the last was a timeline on the manga companies (not counting Dark Horse). I've only compared dollar share and position on the chart, since that seems a bit better judge of success, IMO. For the percents changed, I put the cutoff for coloring at about half a percent.
April 2004 - May 2004 Comparisons
January 2004 - May 2004 Comparisons
May 2003 - May 2004 Comparisons
Manga Focus over time
Analysis
What can we gather? Well, Random House has now officially appeared on the list. A good start, considering they only have four titles out so far. I'm pretty sure Tokyopop has the highest share it ever has had. If they can keep it up, it might really start to overtake Image. We'll have to see whether they drop back down next month or not. Most of the other companies seem to be on a downward arc right now. Viz is lower than it was in January, but last month was decent. Same with ADV. Will have to see whether it was just a light month for these or not. ComicsOne hasn't made it onto the list for two months now..
Image has really taken a hit since last year, but has been relatively stable over this year. The same goes for CrossGen. Actually, I was surprised that CrossGen has been holding on since January. With news of a content freeze and bankruptcy, I'm thinking it'll slide in the coming months, though.
Anyway, I hope someone finds this helpful. If people like this sort of thing, perhaps I could put the data into a database and generate some of these stats and comparisons automatically using PHP. Could also do some things like compare the average share of several companies over a given span of time, which would be really time-consuming to do by hand...
April 2004 - May 2004 Comparisons
| Company | April | May | % Change | Pos. Change |
| Marvel | 38.50% | 34.92% | -3.58 | 0 |
| DC | 28.47% | 30.74% | +2.27 | 0 |
| Dark Horse | 6.72% | 5.99% | -0.73 | 0 |
| Image | 4.37% | 4.56% | +0.19 | 0 |
| Tokyopop | 2.37% | 3.12% | +0.75 | 0 |
| Wizard | 1.89% | 2.67% | +0.78 | +1 |
| Devil's Due | 1.37% | 1.88% | +0.51 | +3 |
| Viz | 1.91% | 1.64% | -0.27 | -2 |
| IDW | 1.75% | 1.39% | -0.36 | -1 |
| CrossGen | 0.75% | 1.30% | +0.55 | +1 |
| Fantagraphics | 0.70% | 1.05% | +0.35 | +1 |
| Dreamwave | 1.71% | 0.67% | -1.04 | -3 |
| Gemstone | 0.54% | 0.55% | +0.01 | 0 |
| Bongo | 0.35% | 0.42% | +0.07 | +4 |
| A.D.V. | 0.53% | 0.38% | -0.15 | -1 |
| Slave Labor | 0.48% | 0.36% | -0.12 | 0 |
| Aspen MTL | N/A | 0.34% | +0.34? | +4? |
| Antarctic | N/A | 0.34% | +0.34? | +3? |
| Random House | N/A | 0.33% | +0.33? | +2 (new) |
| Archie | 0.35% | 0.32% | -0.03 | -1 |
| Non-Top20 | 5.95% | 7.04% | +1.09 | N/A |
January 2004 - May 2004 Comparisons
| Company | January | May | % Change | Pos. Change |
| Marvel | 38.36% | 34.92% | -3.44% | 0 |
| DC | 28.36% | 30.74% | +2.38% | 0 |
| Dark Horse | 7.04% | 5.99% | -1.05% | 0 |
| Image | 4.20% | 4.56% | +0.36% | 0 |
| Tokyopop | 1.63% | 3.12% | +1.49% | +3 |
| Wizard | 2.11% | 2.67% | +0.56% | -1 |
| Devil's Due | 1.39% | 1.88% | +0.49% | -2 |
| Viz | 1.73% | 1.64% | -0.09% | -2 |
| IDW | 0.92% | 1.39% | +0.47% | +2 |
| CrossGen | 1.19% | 1.30% | +0.11% | 0 |
| Fantagraphics | 0.80% | 1.05% | +0.25% | +1 |
| Dreamwave | 1.67% | 0.67% | -1.00% | -5 |
| Gemstone | 0.63% | 0.55% | -0.08% | 0 |
| Bongo | N/A | 0.42% | +0.42%? | +6? |
| A.D.V. | 0.53% | 0.38% | -0.15% | -1 |
| Slave Labor | 0.51% | 0.36% | -0.15% | -1 |
| Aspen MTL | N/A | 0.34% | +0.34%? | +3? |
| Antarctic | 0.43% | 0.34% | -0.09% | -1 |
| Random House | N/A | 0.33% | +0.33%? | +2? |
| Archie | 0.42% | 0.32% | -0.10% | -2 |
| Non-Top20 | 7.02% | 7.04% | +0.02% | N/A |
May 2003 - May 2004 Comparisons
| Company | May '03 | May '04 | % Change | Pos. Change |
| Marvel | 34.68% | 34.92% | +0.24% | 0 |
| DC | 29.22% | 30.74% | +1.52% | 0 |
| Dark Horse | 4.94% | 5.99% | +1.05% | +1 |
| Image | 7.93% | 4.56% | -3.37% | -1 |
| Tokyopop | 2.04% | 3.12% | +1.08% | +3 |
| Wizard | 2.09% | 2.67% | +0.58% | +1 |
| Devil's Due | N/A | 1.88% | +1.88%? | +14? |
| Viz | 1.40% | 1.64% | +0.24% | +1 |
| IDW | 0.56% | 1.39% | +0.83% | +2 |
| CrossGen | 4.28% | 1.30% | -2.98% | -5 |
| Fantagraphics | 0.70% | 1.05% | +0.35% | -1 |
| Dreamwave | 2.26% | 0.67% | -1.59% | -6 |
| Gemstone | N/A | 0.55% | +0.55%? | +8? |
| Bongo | 0.30% | 0.42% | +0.12% | +6 |
| A.D.V. | N/A | 0.38% | +0.38%? | +6? |
| Slave Labor | 0.46% | 0.36% | -0.10% | -4 |
| Aspen MTL | N/A | 0.34% | +0.34%? | +4? |
| Antarctic | 0.35% | 0.34% | -0.01% | 0 |
| Random House | N/A | 0.33% | +0.33%? | +2? |
| Archie | 0.39% | 0.32% | -0.07% | -5 |
| Non-Top20 | 6.46% | 7.04% | +0.58% | N/A |
Manga Focus over time
| Tokyopop | Viz | A.D.V. | ComicsOne | Random | |
| May '03 | 2.04% | 1.40% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| January '04 | 1.63% | 1.73% | 0.53% | N/A | N/A |
| February | 2.56% | 1.76% | 0.66% | 0.41% | N/A |
| March | 2.58% | 2.23% | N/A | 0.50% | N/A |
| April | 2.37% | 1.91% | 0.53% | N/A | N/A |
| May | 3.12% | 1.64% | 0.38% | N/A | 0.33% (new) |
Analysis
What can we gather? Well, Random House has now officially appeared on the list. A good start, considering they only have four titles out so far. I'm pretty sure Tokyopop has the highest share it ever has had. If they can keep it up, it might really start to overtake Image. We'll have to see whether they drop back down next month or not. Most of the other companies seem to be on a downward arc right now. Viz is lower than it was in January, but last month was decent. Same with ADV. Will have to see whether it was just a light month for these or not. ComicsOne hasn't made it onto the list for two months now..
Image has really taken a hit since last year, but has been relatively stable over this year. The same goes for CrossGen. Actually, I was surprised that CrossGen has been holding on since January. With news of a content freeze and bankruptcy, I'm thinking it'll slide in the coming months, though.
Anyway, I hope someone finds this helpful. If people like this sort of thing, perhaps I could put the data into a database and generate some of these stats and comparisons automatically using PHP. Could also do some things like compare the average share of several companies over a given span of time, which would be really time-consuming to do by hand...
