TOP50 Best-Selling Single Issues in December 2025

Well, this one is quite interesting! But before we dive in: if this is your first chart, scroll down for an explanation of how this ranking is created.

As an advance note, we’ve slightly adjusted the methodology. While units sold is still the primary metric, we now use revenue per position to break ties between titles with the same unit count. Also, the “relative to Batman” metric is now based on revenue, which adds some interesting flavour.

Let’s start with the best-selling book by a wide margin: Ultimate Endgame #1 is Marvel’s biggest hit since the launch of Ultimate Spider-Man — well over two years ago. (And no, I will not count the DC/Marvel crossover as a pure Marvel release — because, you know, it wasn’t!)

Yes, there were… ahem, some issues with the blind bags. But, you know, while everyone complained, (almost) everyone also kept their pre-orders. And we are currently sold out (more incoming!).

So if you were one of the Cassandras predicting the death of the blind bag by year’s end… well, you (aka me) were wrong. People just freaking love them. Which is great, because one should never judge the love of others (also, as a retailer I do encourage any kind of love, really!)

So… Marvel is doing great, right?

Well. Minus the Ultimate books (and there are not many of them), the highest-ranking “616 regular universe” Marvel series is…
drumroll
Amazing Spider-Man #17 ranking at ... 31 ?!?! WHAAATTT??! Or: Incroyable!!! (as Gloriana would put it.) Also: no 616-X-Book in the Top50. Come on, Marvel!!

But would DC also be a very dead fish in a stinking pond without the Absolute line? That’s the new myth, right? Well, it’s simply not true. Here’s the publisher breakdown for the Top 50:

• Absolute Line: 37.9%
  
• DC Comics (Remainder): 34.7%
  
• Marvel Comics: 20.7%
  
• Image Comics: 5.6%
  
• IDW Publishing: 1.1%
  

And even across total singles sales, the picture is clear:

• DC Comics (Remainder): 27.7%
  
• Marvel Comics: 26.0%
  
• Absolute Line: 22.0%
  
• Image Comics: 12.3%
  
• IDW Publishing: 2.6%
  

So yeah: DC is killing Marvel, even if you exclude the Absolute books. (And Marvel still gets to keep the Ultimate ones.)

It’s that dire.

Sure: This month also featured the second DC/Marvel crossover, which counts toward DC’s share. And we’re seeing some catch-up effects this month and next, due to severely delayed Lunar shipments. So, grain of salt an' all. But still: holy moly.

Now, what does DC need to do next? Simple: put real marketing power behind their next wave of books: Batwoman, Lobo, Deathstroke, Demon, etc. From a “can’t wait to read them” perspective, these look very promising. But looking at the (decent!) subscription numbers they haven’t yet caught the Absolute reader crowd’s attention. Yet. Same goes for the Vertigo return. Plus, there seem to be more relaunches planned in the coming months. Maybe too many? We’ll see.

Whatever Marvel is cooking next, it better be extra-good, because DC is currently on their biggest winning streak since I started reading comics (many, many decades ago).

Exciting times.

See you next month,

Walt

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Methodology

These sales are counted up to January 9, which is when most pullboxes invoiced for the previous month have been paid off — and thus officially turned into sales.

The ranking uses the following methodology:

Consolidated Variants:
All different covers (Variant A, B, C, etc.) and different printings (1st, 2nd, or 3rd prints) of the same issue are grouped into a single entry.

Primary Ranking: Units Sold
The main rank is based on total number of individual comics sold.

Secondary Ranking: Revenue
If two titles sold the same number of units, the one that generated more total revenue gets the higher rank.

The Batman #4 Benchmark:
Percentages in the right-hand column use Batman #4 as the “100%” baseline. So you can instantly see if a title earned twice as much (200%) or half as much (50%) in revenue.