'08 Summer Manga Rankings: Estimated Publisher Market Share
Based on the recently posted Q3 rankings
mmmmm… Pie:
[sorry the colours get cycled; it’s a limitation of the application. The above chart reads clockwise, Viz is the big blue wedge to your right etc etc. you’ll figure it out. (and with 40 pubs what am I suppose to do? I’m not compiling something by hand.) The pie chart is for illustration purposes only anyway; actual numbers follow:]
By publisher/imprint:
801 Media 1.71
ADV 1.01
Archie Comics 0.74
Aurora Deux 0.66
Berkley 1.97
Broccoli Books 0.7
CMX 0.3
Collins Design 0.2
Dark Horse 3.83
Del Rey 5.54
DMP 0.92
DMP June 2.09
DMP Platinum 0.24
First Second 1.1
Go! Comi 0.73
Graphic Sha 0.2
HarperCollins 0.97
HC/Tokyopop 4.33
Japan Publications Trading Co. 0.7
Japanime’s Manga University 0.56
Last Gasp 0.28
Media Blasters 1.01
Netcomics 0.93
Seven Seas 0.43
Seven Seas Strawberry 0.62
Simon & Schuster 1.06
Tokyopop 12.96
Tokyopop Blu 2.31
Udon 0.31
Vertical 1.2
Viz 4.91
Viz Ghibli Library 0.54
Viz Shojo Beat 10.76
Viz Shonen Jump 17
Viz Shonen Jump Advanced 10.3
Viz Signature 1.28
Vizkids 1.7
(Viz total 46.29)
Yaoi Press 0.22
Yen Press 1.46
Methodology:
Line ‘em up and get a total. That’s pretty much it.
…well…
OK: much like the series rankings, which use a weighted hybrid score the ‘market share’ calculation lends extra weight to the top couple of ranked titles while also considering the partial contributions of all other ranked titles. In fact, it’s the same calculation as the series rankings, exactly, only we’re just looking at a much expanded definition of the term ‘series’.
Heading you off at the pass:
- Remember: It’s only an estimate.
- Berkley is not a manga publisher, but they score because of (and only because of) that Dark Hunger/Christine Feehan/vampire/lyncanthrope/romance/crap/almost-sorta-manga (STOP BUYING IT ALREADY) and while I almost deleted Berkley before running the chart, it is in fact selling on-line, and is represented as being manga, and I don’t like it but my preferences do not affect the wider exchange of goods for money. Sales are sales.
- the HC/Tokyopop bit has been successful beyond either parent’s dreams: Tokyopop’s only regret is that they wish they could take full credit and a larger share of the profits from the stupid-cat-manga. (Past Warriors, though, is Avalon High and Vampire Kisses – which are both doing decent business as well – and whatever else is in the pipe.) HC/Tokyopop is listed separately from either; you can do the math yourself if you felt it should be included moreso with one or the other.
- My method does handicap Viz a bit, in that past the top 2 volumes only a tenth of all scores are considered. It also unfairly rewards the bottom dozen, in that one good book can lift the apparent performance of a third- or fourth-tier publisher into the vaulted hosannas and excelsis of almost (but not quite) one whole percent of the market. — Whatever. You want to post your own chart, go ahead. I stand by my numbers and heuristics.
- 46% with a handicap? I wish they sold stock.
- …and the almost-but-not-quite-one-percent makes it easier to read the pie chart.
- mmmmm… pie.
