For factual answer: Has The Walking Dead’s portrayal of a character that uses a crossbow resulted in significantly increased sales of crossbows?
Crossbow sales in Illinois dramatically increased this year because the state allowed them to be used in the second archery season, whereas before only the disabled and senior citizens could hunt with them.
A legitimately crossbow will run you $300 to $500 and much nicer models are available for more. I seriously doubt anything crossbow sales where affected from this show save for some cheapo pistol-style ones.
I do know that archery as a hobby is on the rise in the last few years, thanks to The Walking Dead, Arrow, Hunger Games, Revolution, Brave, etc.
I did see an ad in a bow hunting mag with the quote ‘may the odds be ever in your favor’ which is Hunger Games, but clearly the they’re not above playing to that crowd, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
I had a crossbow a decades before the current slew of media featuring them so in my case, no, it didn’t affect sales.
There probably has been an uptick, if for no other reason than people are more likely to buy what’s familiar to them.