DC Comics has taken over from Marvel as the biggest publisher in the direct market, as measured by sales through ComicHub. DC had a 32.6% share in Q4 2025 compared to 26.9% in Q4 2024, after an even bigger gain of 10 share points between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025 (see “DC Gains Market Share in Hot Summer“). Marvel Comics slipped from a 33.3% share in Q4 2024 to 29.6% in Q4 this year.
DC’s Absolute initiative has been selling well and the fourth quarter also saw robust sales of the DC K.O. event, the retooled Batman (see “‘Batman’ #1 by Fraction and Jiménez Tops 500K Sold“), and the Batman/Deadpool crossover (see “‘Batman/Deadpool’ #1 (One-Shot)“). As a result, DC’s dollar sales went up by 18% from Q3 to Q4, while Marvel’s dropped by 13% in the same period.
Below the top two, the publisher ranks remained the same as in Q3 except that Kodansha Comics replaced Titan Comics in 10th place. With DC’s share smaller than Marvel’s chart-topping market share in previous quarters, there was room for all eight of the smaller publishers to gain a few tenths of a percent share in Q4.
| ICv2’s Comic Book Publisher Market Shares – Q4 2025 | ||
| Rank | Publishing | Market Share |
| 1 | DC Comics | 32.6% |
| 2 | Marvel Comics | 29.6% |
| 3 | Image Comics | 12.2% |
| 4 | IDW Publishing + Top Shelf Prod. | 4.0% |
| 5 | Dark Horse Comics | 3.2% |
| 6 | BOOM! Studios | 2.3% |
| 7 | Dynamite Entertainment | 2.3% |
| 8 | VIZ Media | 2.1% |
| 9 | Oni Press | 1.2% |
| 10 | Kodansha Comics | 1.2% |
| All Others | 9.3% | |
The data on which these market share percentages are based is from sales tracked at point-of-sale by the ComicHub system at stores selling American comics and graphic novels around the world. During the period for which these reports were generated, there were over 125 stores using the ComicHub system. As this is a small, non-random sample of over 3,000 stores selling American comics worldwide, these rankings may not be typical for all stores, but do represent a variety of locations and store emphases.
For monthly sales rankings based on ComicHub POS data, see “Comics and Graphic Novel Sales Rankings Based on Comic Store POS Data Index.”
Source: ICv2
