Luke and Aphra Mostly Unaffected by the Screaming Citadel in May

Comichron released the May 2017 estimated sales this week.  The best selling books on Diamond's Top 300 chart are all DC and Marvel superhero event books.  Despite placing 12th on the chart, Star Wars remains Marvel's best selling ongoing title.

Title	Issue	Monthly Rank	Estimated Sales	Last Estimated Sales	Percent Change
Star Wars	31	12	70,907	70,175	+1.04%
Screaming Citadel	1	14	69,019	N/A	N/A
Doctor Aphra	7	36	43,763	40,458	+8.17%
Poe Dameron	14	54	37,050	36,994	+0.15%
Poe Dameron	15	70	32,658	37,050	-11.85%
Rogue One	2	74	31,966	64,518	-50.45%

When the Vader Down event came out in November 2015, it had a decent impact on the sales of the Star Wars and Darth Vader crossover issues.  Star Wars #13 saw an increase in estimated units sold of 13.63% and Darth Vader #13 saw an even larger increase of 25.95%.  In comparison, the Screaming Citadel event saw Star Wars #31 increase unit sales by only 1.04% and Doctor Aphra #7 by a modest 8.17% or approximately 3,300 units.  I expected the Screaming Citadel event to perform closer to Vader Down percentage wise and Marvel has to be disappointed it did not even come close.  Vader Down #1 placed 2nd for units sold in November 2015 and was the top selling Star Wars title that month with an estimated 384,969 units.  It might be an unfair comparison, but you know Marvel was hoping for a repeat of Vader Down when they devised this event.

Poe Dameron shipped two issues in May and issue #14 did not see any significant change in units sold from the previous month.  Poe Dameron #15 however saw a large drop of 11.85% or nearly 4,400 units.  This issue is now the lowest selling issue in an ongoing Star Wars title, taking the place of Kanan #12 which had estimated sales of 36,649 units.

Unfortunately, the numbers for Rogue One #2 are equally disappointing.  The 2nd issue of the Force Awakens only saw a drop in unit sales of 37.93% and its 1st issue had just under 15,000 more units than Rogue One #1.  Rogue One fell 50.45% which is not terribly bad for a mini-series, but in comparison to The Force Awakens it is surprising.  Rogue One #2 is now the lowest selling issue in a mini-series Star Wars title.

Next month, the Darth Maul mini-series returns and we get the debut of Darth Vader's second series!

The following table shows the total number of Star Wars units sold per month since January 2015 along with the average number of sales per issue.

Month/Year	Total Estimated Sales	# Issues	Average Sale per Issue
January 2015	985,976	1	985,976
February 2015	526,451	3	175,484
March 2015	596,299	4	149,075
April 2015	537,812	4	134,453
May 2015	324,835	3	108,278
June 2015	396,931	4	99,232
July 2015	597,023	5	119,404
August 2015	430,241	5	86,048
September 2015	551,880	5	110,376
October 2015	953,289	10	95,329
November 2015	1,003,954	8	125,494
December 2015	507,545	6	84,591
January 2016	465,698	5	93,139
February 2016	288,355	4	72,088
March 2016	355,554	5	71,110
April 2016	533,976	5	106,795
May 2016	299,189	4	74,797
June 2016	545,833	6	90,972
July 2016	359,166	5	71,833
August 2016	322,499	5	64,500
September 2016	174,420	3	58,140
October 2016	339,778	5	67,956
November 2016	269,975	5	53,995
December 2016	303,886	4	75,972
January 2017	161,014	3	53,671
February 2017	262,889	4	65,722
March 2017	214,603	4	53,650
April 2017	274,262	5	54,852
May 2017	285,363	6	47,560

The average sale per issue of 47,560 would rank 30th on the top 300 chart for the month of May.  Star Wars trade paperbacks, reprint titles, and reorders are not accounted for with these numbers.  The Star Wars trade paperbacks are strong sellers.

Take a look at the Star Wars Sales Estimate Chart and please read the blog posting May 2017 comics sales estimates online; combining orders again gives Batman top slot.