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GATSU
Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15542
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 Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 11:02 am
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Another bubble correction from all that Isekai, plus superhero fatigue.
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RockSplash
Joined: 28 Oct 2019
Posts: 501
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 12:07 pm
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| GATSU wrote: | | Another bubble correction from all that Isekai, plus superhero fatigue. |
This is for physical purchases. Digital purchases are excluded. From what I have heard, if you are still into American comics like myself, you read digitally almost exclusively.
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Cryten
Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 1128
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 4:23 pm
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With a spike like 2021 it is almost inevitable to see a correction. It will take another 2-3 years to see if current numbers are plateauing or adopting a new trend.
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SinisterOracle
Joined: 13 May 2023
Posts: 371
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 9:34 pm
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I know my spending on physical manga goes up every year as I find new series I enjoy. I still buy American comics sometimes but they’re nothing like they were during the golden age.
| Quote: | | ICv2 explained that its biggest change in methodology for the 2023 results is that the company has stopped reporting on download-to-own sales of digital comics. The company said regarding why it made this change, "The most important reason for making that change is that subscriptions for online access to comics are comprising an increasing part in digital sales, and that's a part of the market that's opaque to the public, and to us." |
I’m confused by this. Download-to-own sales of digital comics should not be considered a subscription for online access. If you buy it, you “own” it until the license is lost. If you’re paying for a subscription, you generally cannot download books, instead reading them online or using an app.
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Cryten
Joined: 19 Jan 2019
Posts: 1128
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 9:37 pm
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| SinisterOracle wrote: | | I’m confused by this. Download-to-own sales of digital comics should not be considered a subscription for online access. If you buy it, you “own” it until the license is lost. If you’re paying for a subscription, you generally cannot download books, instead reading them online or using an app. |
As demonstrated by recent closures, a digital purchase is not ongoing after its hosting service expires. So unless you have a backup to read, you lose the ability to consume your purchase. And legally your license expires with the end of service. Technically your digital purchase is just a license equivalent to a long term rental for a fixed up front price.
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SinisterOracle
Joined: 13 May 2023
Posts: 371
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 9:48 pm
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| Cryten wrote: |
| SinisterOracle wrote: | | I’m confused by this. Download-to-own sales of digital comics should not be considered a subscription for online access. If you buy it, you “own” it until the license is lost. If you’re paying for a subscription, you generally cannot download books, instead reading them online or using an app. |
As demonstrated by recent closures, a digital purchase is not ongoing after its hosting service expires. So unless you have a backup to read, you lose the ability to consume your purchase. And legally your license expires with the end of service. Technically your digital purchase is just a license equivalent to a long term rental for a fixed up front price. |
I understand. It’s saying you’re just leasing or renting the digital content until you can no longer access it. That’s the reason why I still buy so much physical media today. I have stuff that’s not available anywhere online today. It pays to have lived through the rapid changes of technology 
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onpufan
Joined: 22 Dec 2022
Posts: 158
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Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2024 10:40 pm
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| RockSplash wrote: | | This is for physical purchases. Digital purchases are excluded. From what I have heard, if you are still into American comics like myself, you read digitally almost exclusively. |
Unless something changed in this last year digital comics had stagnated and made up only a small minority of the overall sales for years according to these reports. If omitting digital sales all together this year only resulted in a 7% drop then it couldn't have been that impactful.
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residentgrigo
Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2577
Location: Germany
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Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2024 7:25 am
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The one and only time a superhero fatigue hit the US market was in the 50s. Spider-man and Batman still roll the roost despite very questionable stories during our current comic boom, Isekai comics barely exist and let´s not pretend that manga adaptations of Isekai LNs took over the market at any point in time in any region. COVID created this bubble. Nothing else. 2024 can only see a more drastic decline. A disproportionate amount of collected editions were bought during peak COVID and the speculator market won´t ever allow printed comics to truly crash. What has gone away are uninterrupted ongoing runs that last at least 2 years. Only big books manage those now. Stuff like Scarlet Witch goes from one mini- to maxi-series to the next with the same author but the names change a bit and a new No. 1 is created every time.
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Beatdigga
Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4590
Location: New York
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Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2024 9:25 am
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An interview done at the tail end of 2023 with local comic shops pretty much had most of them described as having varying business, with the only real spark of excitement for new readers being the Energon Universe comics (Transformers, GI Joe, and Void Rivals). This seems consistent with that testimony.
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Crystalyn
ANN Managing Editor
Joined: 16 Oct 2009
Posts: 584
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Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2024 12:24 am
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| onpufan wrote: | |
Unless something changed in this last year digital comics had stagnated and made up only a small minority of the overall sales for years according to these reports. If omitting digital sales all together this year only resulted in a 7% drop then it couldn't have been that impactful. |
You bring up a good point that we should have put in the article, so thank you for this comment.
ICv2 stated regarding stopping on reporting on download-to-own sales of digital comics:
| Quote: | | We did not report an estimate for digital sales for 2023, and have removed those estimates from the totals of the previous years to provide comparability. |
So the 7% decrease is in comparison to the market in 2022 AFTER ICv2 took out what it estimated for download-to-own sales of digital comics (which they estimated at US$155 million in 2022).
I'll add that info into the article.
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