That's correct. Hate was far more popular than Eightball when the two titles began. With that in mind, it is entirely possible that the first issues of Eightball had a circulation of less than 10,000.
OK, I just checked Krause's Standard Catalog of Comic Books. It says 2.875 copies ordered for issue #8, with no info for the earlier issues. Keeping in mind these are just the orders from Capital City Distribution, I'd say a ballpark figure for 10,000 copies total would be close to the truth.
Which still doesn't say much about the very early issues, though.