March IDW comic sales figures: steady as she goes

...presumed fabulous?

It's time for us to take a look at the comic sales figures for March, and once again the news is pretty good. The estimates from Comichron tell a story of a title which remains, by a long way, IDW's best seller. In fact, the company has three books in the month's top 100 — and every single one of them is a Pony comic. At the top of the heap, we have issue #4, the conclusion of the widely acclaimed Cook/Price arc. It stands just outside the top 50 (at no. 55, to be exact) and sold:

41,541

An accident of the calendar this time around means that there are two issues of the main series eligible for inclusion in the March figures. I've been waiting with great interest to see how the Nuhfer/Mebberson arc would fare in comparison to the immensely satisfying story that launched the comic. Many fans (including me) feel that issue #5 is very good, but not quite up to the amazing standard of some of its predecessors. It charted at no. 65 and sold:

36,354

So, there's been a significant fall in sales from issue #4, but not a huge one. Finally, there's issue #2 of the Micro-Series. I expected a substantial drop here from the first (Twilight) spotlight, since just that happened after the debut issue of the main series too — but given Rainbow Dash's popularity I wasn't sure how great that drop would be. In the event the comic hit no. 91 and sold:

25,473

Now, what have we learned? Loss of control. Of course it's very early days still, but there does seem to be a gentle downward trend in the sales figures: issue #5 is the lowest-selling and lowest-charting of all five main-series issues so far. It will be interesting to see what happens a) with the three forthcoming issues in this arc and b) when Cook and Price return for the third arc later in the year.

Remember, though: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is still a very, very big sales hit by IDW standards, and even issue #5 sold more than twice as many copies in March as the company's most popular non-Pony comic book. (TNMT issue #20, since you ask.) If the "difficult second arc" can be negotiated well, and my feeling is that it will be, then this comic should be set fair for a long and happy life.