Sales Data for Superman & LSH: Millennium

Thanks to Comichron, we have some sales numbers to look at - but only up through LSH: Millennium, we'll have to wait til next month to see what the regular series shapes up like. There's no sales data yet on the new series, but expect it to be high because (a) multiple covers and (b) flight rings. I'll go out on a limb and be optimistic and say LSH #1 will hit 65k sales. No predictions for the future after that just yet.

• Superman #14 - 47,777
• Superman #15 - 47,857
• LSH: Millennium #1 - 48,389
• LSH: Millennium #2 - 39,489

For historical context, in the last 20 years, here are the issues that have sold at least 39k copies (note that the top seller, Adventure #4, came with a Lantern ring):

Jan-10	85,145	Adventure Comics v3	4
Oct-08	73,914	Legion of Three Worlds	1
Dec-08	64,412	Legion of Three Worlds	2
Apr-09	61,358	Legion of Three Worlds	3
Oct-04	61,047	Teen Titans/The Legion Special	1
Feb-05	59,944	LSH v5	1
Feb-10	59,876	Adventure Comics v3	5
Jun-09	56,888	Legion of Three Worlds	4
Oct-09	56,706	Adventure Comics v3	1
Sep-09	55,970	Legion of Three Worlds	5
May-06	54,826	Supergirl & the LSH	16
Mar-10	53,721	Adventure Comics v3	7
Nov-11	53,285	LSH v7	1
Jul-10	50,106	LSH v6	1
Nov-11	49,952	Legion Lost v2	1
Mar-05	48,584	LSH v5	2
Sep-19	48,389	LSH: Millennium	1
Sep-19	47,857	Superman	15
Aug-19	47,777	Superman	14
Jun-06	47,697	Supergirl & the LSH	17
Nov-09	47,296	Adventure Comics v3	2
Feb-08	45,803	Supergirl & the LSH	37
Jul-06	45,520	Supergirl & the LSH	18
Apr-05	44,824	LSH v5	3
Dec-09	44,431	Adventure Comics v3	3
Aug-06	43,918	Supergirl & the LSH	19
May-05	43,408	LSH v5	4
Mar-10	42,514	Adventure Comics v3	6
Dec-11	42,504	LSH v7	2
Sep-06	41,679	Supergirl & the LSH	20
Jun-05	41,664	LSH v5	5
Dec-06	41,554	Supergirl & the LSH	23
Jul-05	40,970	LSH v5	6
Oct-06	39,852	Supergirl & the LSH	21
Oct-19	39,489	LSH: Millennium	2

For the September issues, looking at Comichron data:

• The #1 book was Spawn #300 at 262K
• The next ten DC books on the list are Doomsday Clock, DCeased, Batman, Harley Quinn, and Justice League.
• LSH: Millennium #1 was the #26 overall book and the #11 DC book.

Getting back to the October issues, here's what Comichron says regarding Diamond sales:

• The #1 book was X-Men #1, at 255K
• The next ten DC books on the list are Joker, Harley Quinn, and/or Batman
• The next eight DC books after that are Superman, Batman, and/or DCeased
• After that comes Event Leviathan, Superman, Action (all Bendis), Green Lantern, and LSH: Millennium #2 at 53rd; LSH Millennium #2 outsold everything DC has that's not Batman & Co, Superman, or Green Lantern.

Looking back at the current Superman series, Superman #13 sold 52,000 copies, that's the closest comparison I can make on a Bendis book - it's the highest non-Batman, non-JLA, non-DCeased book for the month, and is the #15 book for DC in July. (This issue got a bump because of the cardstock cover for some reason, it's normally selling around 49k). Sales are flattening from the Bendis relaunch, which is to be expected - issue 1 sold 133k, issue 2 sold 77k, issue 3 sold 67k, that's normal for a new title.

In comparison, going backward in time:

• Nov. 2011: the New 52 Legion started at 53K sales, sank below 20k with issue 9, and ended with about 15k
• Oct. 2008: Legion of 3 Worlds started out with 74k and ended with 56k, and it had George Perez
• May 2006: Supergirl & The LSH #16 (her first issue) hit 54K and that dropped to the low 20s by the end of that series. 
• Dec. 2001: Abnett/Lanning's The Legion started at 30k and dropped to 23k

That brings us back to 2001 almost 20 years ago when the market was different. You have to go back to the earliest days of the Reboot in 1995 to find a time when the Legion was regularly selling over 30k.

In the past, the Legion series have all bottomed out around 15-20K, suggesting that's the core base that will always buy a Legion title: v7 (New 52) at 15K, v6 (Retroboot) at 22K, Adventure at 19K, v5 (Threeboot) at 22K, The Legion (Reboot) at 23K, and LSH v4 and Legionnaires (Reboot) at 17K.

So this is a long-winded way of saying that any any significant sales increase over what we've seen before will probably be due to people who have NOT been Legion fans. And given the choice between bringing in new fans vs appeasing old fans, I think DC would rather grow for the future. The 5YL stories started 30 years ago in 1989, the Reboot 25 years ago in 1994. People get older and you have to bring in new readers.