Inside 'Rocket Raccoon' #1's 300,000 Pre-Orders
In the year 2014, a single comic book selling 300,000 copies in a single month is a very big deal. For perspective, the top comic from March was Batman #29, which sold just about 117,000 copies. April's top seller was Amazing Spider-Man #1, which managed a jaw-dropping 532,000, but was bolstered by numerous retailer incentives tied to variant covers.
The first issue of Skottie Young's new Rocket Raccoon series is a bit of an anomaly, though. Yes, it has reportedly sold 300,000 copies according to Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso, and without much in the way of arcane retailer incentives, but it seems that about 100,000 of those comics were all ordered by one source: Loot Crate, a service that sends subscribers monthly boxes of "geek and gamer" merchandise.