Infographic: DC vs Marvel – The Battle of Brands

Generations of comic book fans have argued over which superhero would come out on top in the ultimate superhero battle between DC and Marvel universe. That is one argument that we cannot resolve, but what we offer instead is a look at the battle of the brands, and seeing who is currently winning the everlasting war. Looking back at the very beginning, DC has dominated the comic book world from the 1930s to 1960s. Slowly but surely Marvel has taken over the lead, currently holding around 47% of the total comic book market, while DC commands around 27%. Both companies have branched out their brands into movies. With DC again paving the path with its 1966 Batman the Movie. Marvel followed 20 years later with 1986’s Howard the Duck. The new millennium saw a significant increase in interest for superhero movies and Marvel was yet again able to surpass DC, having the 3rd biggest box office hit of all-times with The Avengers franchise, while DC had the 7th biggest with The Dark Knight Rises. The video gaming world was the next natural step for both franchisees. With yet again DC pioneering the genre with Supermen in 1979 and Marvel following shortly after with Spider-Man in 1982. DC has held the lead in this industry so far with Batman: Arkham Knight selling over 5 million copies in 2015, while Marvel’s last release The Amazing Spider-Man 2 scored only 52/100 on Metacritic. With the arrival of the digital era, both brands moved their battlefield from newsstands to the digital marketing arena. So far Marvel has been a clear winner, generating 3.9 million in organic keyword search, in comparison to DC’s 1 million. In the social media ring, Marvel still keeps knocking DC out with a Twitter following of over 3 million, while DC was able to generate around 1.5 million followers so far. On Facebook there is no contest, Marvel’s 21 million likes pulverizes DC’s 3 million. We will definitely keep an eye on this ongoing battle of the brands and its possible future developments. But for now, have a look at our Battle of the Brands infographic and choose for yourself which brand, Marvel or DC, is the safest bet.