very low earner here but IS is like 4x less SS

I was interested to note that my top selling image on Shutterstock has earned four times as much money as my top selling image on iStock.

I'm just wondering how top earners compare between the two for other microstockers here.

Impossible, four of the top five selling images for me on SS and by far, better than most everything else I have there, were rejected by IS. So there's no way to compare.

#4 or 5 I can't pinpoint it without doing a bunch of searching, has earned twice as much on SS as IS. But the price for the sales on SS are 1/6th of what I got on IS. So every six sales on SS = one sale on IS. In sales dollars, because of volume, every $3 from SS (12 sales) I make $1.50 (1 sale) on IS for the same image.

But like some others, small collection, no people pictures, I might be better suited for SS buyers? When comparing sales, of anything, anywhere, What Is It, might make more difference than where is it selling? I mean diced tomatoes on SS aren't the same as dicey babe's on IS. People who shop at IS might be more interested in Business Handshake than buyers on SS? You can't just say, my best sellers at one site vs the same images on another site, without taking into account, what are the subjects and content?

I think you're over-complicating this Race  

I took my measurement by sorting by royalties earned on SS and noting the earnings of the top seller there.  Then sorting by royalties earned on iStock, and noting the earnings of the top seller there.

Completely different images.  The only thing they have in common is that each is the top seller at that particular agency.

I didn't mean to get anyone into heavy analysis here... just talking straightforward dosh

Oh I thought you wanted the top earning image compared, but mine are different, since the rejections from IS.

You meant any top earning image on SS vs any other top earning image on IS.

About the same. IS makes six times more per download, SS makes 12 times more sales.

But that's all changing as IS sales have suddenly dropped to nearly nothing and SS sales have been increasing. Both happened in August. I'm not complaining, SS always made the same monthly money, so now I'll make more in one place and less in the other, but the total will be about the same.

In my case TS sales have gone up and I'm beginning to think, that's where my IS sales went. That would become about an 80% drop in IS income. I'll give it a few months and see if that trend is true. If so... wow that stinks!

The same top earner on IS and DT, different on SS:

IS  - 100%
SS  - 27%
DT  - 15%

The same image is my top seller on both SS & IS and earnings are almost identical on each site. IS is currently about $27 ahead although the image has had nearly twice as many sales on SS. 

Thanks for responding everyone.  An interesting mixture of results.  I put the question out there because I was so surprised at my own result.  From the small sample here, it seems it's not typical.  It would be interesting to do a similar comparison six months to a year from now, once the TS effect has taken hold.