The Numbers: Week 39


Kind of a surprise turn since last month, as Countdown’s sales actually went up in January.

The motivation for this seems to begin with the introduction of Earth-51 Batman in Countdown 16. Sure, a new version of Batman – particularly a relevant Batman considering Jason Todd’s leanings and the various forces tugging at the guy over the years – can be credited with a little bit of a spike. This jump in almost 4,000 copies reversed the downward slope for a week, bringing sales back to the point they’d been with Countdown 24.

The clear surprise, though, is that nearly all of those readers came back. Countdown 15 drew only 44 fewer readers than the previous issue. With the exception of Countdown 39, which had increased sales of almost 16,000 (due to DC’s return policy), the difference between Countdown 16 and 15 marks the best reader retention DC has had throughout this entire series.