Revealed: The 2008 bestsellers

His Big: Live At The O2 release, which was released on November 24, sold 1,042,717 copies – making it by far the bestselling stand-up DVD of the entire year.

Michael McIntyre was next, selling almost 440,000 copies of his debut release in 2008, followed by fellow DVD newcomer Frankie Boyle with just under 300,000.

Between them, the top 10 disc were responsible for around £40million of sales, assuming an average price of £16.

The full top ten was:

1. Lee Evans Live at the O2 (1,042,717)
2. Michael McIntyre Live & Laughing (436,592)
3. Frankie Boyle Live (294,734)
4. Bill Bailey Tinselworm (228,476)
5. Jimmy Carr In Concert (139,172)
6. Roy Chubby Brown Dirty Weekend (126,753)
7. Russell Howard Live (103,772)
8. Dara O'Briain Talks Funny (91,897)
9. A Giant Portion of Jethro Live (81,123)
10. Paddy McGuinness Plus You Live (63,456)

Most of the titles are issued by Universal, which has long dominated the genre.

However, Channel 4’s 4DVD label is claiming to make inroads in the market after releasing three of the top ten: Frankie Boyle, Russell Howard and Jimmy Carr. In 2007, it had only one title in the top ten, Carr’s, against Universal’s eight.

4DVD’s comedy A&R Manger, Liz Hadley said: ‘We’ve had fantastic results with Jimmy Carr in recent years and following on from this success we have been able to focus on new talent.

‘Frankie and Russell’s debut DVDs have been very successful and this reflects our commitment to investing in new comedy talent.’

Published: 12 Jan 2009