2. Marilyn Monroe, December 1953 – 54,175 copies sold
There are probably more Reddit users subscribed to a discussion board about the thickness of their dog’s fur than people who bought this issue. But there are a few things to keep in mind to understand why this issue was so successful.
First, this was the magazine’s inaugural issue and Playboy only printed around 70,000 copies. For those who aren’t math majors, that’s about 77% of all the issues printed. This thing was like the iPhone, but with more boobs and fewer abused Chinese workers used to make it. For a magazine who didn’t offer a subscription, received little press about its release, and was kind of an affront to traditional family values, to nearly sell out their entire supply was unheard of at the time. In the odd, scary land before Google made finding naked women easier than baking a cake, this copy broke the mold.
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