Demo-Graphics: Comic Fandom Kicks off 2026 with some Growth

Demo-Graphics is back! Demo-Graphics was relaunched in 2025 because the question still remains… who are comic fans?

What is Demo-Graphics?

Each month I dive into data from Facebook looking at the various demographics it can tell us about comic fans. This isn’t hard numbers, purchasers, or “Wednesday warriors,” but best used to show trends in the industry and the potential of the market out there. This has shown the shift towards women being a major force in readers and a shift to the younger demographic.

How does it work?

We use key terms, “likes”, that users have indicated and have come up with our own set to measure each month. There’s over 50 terms used (and no I won’t release them). We stick to specific terms for the industry such as “comics” and “graphic novels” and “one-shots” as well as publishers and leave out broad terms like specific characters or stories. Just because someone likes Batman doesn’t mean they like comics.

Other things to know…

This data is important in that it shows who the potential comic audience could be. These are not purchasers, these are people who have shown an affinity for comics, are potential purchasers, and those with a clear interest.

Also, with this being online/technology, due to laws and restrictions, those under the age of 13 are underrepresented.

Since the last time this feature was run, Facebook has made adjustments as to what it can report so some data is no longer available and we’ve also added in new data that hasn’t been reported before, and it now presents the data as a wide range. I’ve taken the average of the range. So, if it’s presented as somewhere between 500 and 1,000 people, the number would be 750.

So, let’s kick off the latest entry with the big question…

Facebook “Comic Fan” Population: Around 116 million in the United States

The first half of 2025 was off to an interesting start as we saw a decrease in the overall population for five months in a row. From January 2025 to June 2025, there was a loss of 8.45 million individuals. But, July stopped the slide with an increase of about 3.5 million individuals. August saw a jump of 24.8 million individuals while Facebook in the United States saw a decrease of about 500,000 individuals. September saw another bump of 850,000 while overall Facebook population increased by 2.2 million. October was a slight decrease in “comic fans” but also in the overall Facebook user population for the US. While November and December 2025 also saw drops.

January 2026 sees an increase of about 400,000 individuals. Whether this is a temporary bump, seasonal changes, or something else, we’ll have to wait and see.

Facebook Comic Population January 2026

Gender

The overall population of comic fans grew but that doesn’t mean it did so for each gender. “Men” dropped about 500,000 individuals while women saw an increase of 250,000.

Facebook Comic Gender January 2026

Age

Like gender, age too wasn’t consistent in gains. “18 and under,” “35-39,” and “65+” all saw gains while the rest remained the same or dipped.

Facebook Comic Age January 2026

Relationship Status

Generally, all of these actually decreased in population over the month. “Engaged” saw a slight increase of about 50,000 and “unspecified” remained the same. Beyond that, all other demographics saw a decrease.

Facebook Comic Relationship Status January 2026

New Stats!

Education has been combined to see how many individuals have at least a college degree. This month saw a decrease in both percentage and population size with 35.15 million, down about 200,000 individuals. In 2024, 31.3% of the American population had at least a college degree.

22.65 million fans are parents! That’s an increase from the previous month which was 22.1 million.

And finally, what’s the crossover with fans of board games and video games? 66.45 million, 57.28% of comic fans also enjoy board/tabletop/card games, a massive increase from the previous month. An increase from the previous month, 71.1 million, 61.29% also enjoy video games. Combined, 93.2 million like board games or video games and 44.4 million enjoy board games and video games. Get your licensing engines revving!


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