diff --git a/cmd/daily.go b/cmd/daily.go
index 7456771..6267c1b 100644
--- a/cmd/daily.go
+++ b/cmd/daily.go
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 package cmd
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
+	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
-	"os"
 
 	"github.com/devOpifex/cranlogs/internal/color"
 	"github.com/devOpifex/cranlogs/internal/data"
@@ -16,22 +17,29 @@ func daily(_ *cobra.Command, args []string) {
 	if len(args) == 0 {
 		log.Fatal("no package specified")
 	}
-	// TODO: this still has some issues in how its handled
-	// as if a specific package fails, it will cause the entire process to
-	// exit then. A different pattern could be to aggregate errors for
-	// failed packages, then print out successful ones, then at the end
-	// the error(s) for the failed ones
-	for _, pkg := range args {
-		daily, err := data.GetDaily(dailyPeriod, pkg)
+	p, err := data.NewPeriod(dailyPeriod)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	dailyDls, err := data.GetDaily(p, args)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Fatalf("error getting daily downloads: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	if printJson {
+		var out bytes.Buffer
+		dailyBytes, err := json.Marshal(dailyDls)
 		if err != nil {
-			color.PrintError(err.Error())
-			// given an error should not exit with a 0 exit code
-			os.Exit(-1)
+			log.Fatalf("error marshalling daily downloads: %s", err)
 		}
-
-		fmt.Printf("Package: %v %v %v\n", color.Yellow, daily.Package, color.Reset)
-		for _, v := range daily.Downloads {
-			fmt.Printf("%v%v%v: %v\n", color.Cyan, v.Day, color.Reset, v.Downloads)
+		json.Indent(&out, dailyBytes, "", "  ")
+		fmt.Println(out.String())
+	} else {
+		for _, d := range dailyDls {
+			fmt.Printf("Package: %v %v %v\n", color.Yellow, d.Package, color.Reset)
+			for _, v := range d.Downloads {
+				fmt.Printf("%v%v%v: %v\n", color.Cyan, v.Day, color.Reset, v.Downloads)
+			}
 		}
 	}
 }
diff --git a/cmd/root.go b/cmd/root.go
index 90b2acd..44f44f1 100644
--- a/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmd/root.go
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 )
 
+var printJson bool
+
 var rootCmd = &cobra.Command{
 	Use:   "Cranlogs",
 	Short: "Access the cranlogs API",
@@ -25,4 +27,5 @@ func Execute() {
 
 func init() {
 	rootCmd.AddCommand(newDailyCmd())
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().BoolVar(&printJson, "json", false, "output in json format")
 }
diff --git a/internal/data/daily.go b/internal/data/daily.go
index f010a92..326524d 100644
--- a/internal/data/daily.go
+++ b/internal/data/daily.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"net/http"
+	"strings"
 )
 
 type Daily struct {
@@ -18,31 +19,36 @@ type DailyDownload struct {
 	Downloads int    `json:"downloads"`
 }
 
-func GetDaily(period, pkg string) (Daily, error) {
+func GetDaily(period Period, pkgs []string) ([]Daily, error) {
 	// weirdly the API returns an array of length 1
 	var daily []Daily
-
-	path := URL + "downloads/daily/" + period + "/" + pkg
-
+	path := URL + "downloads/daily/" + string(period) + "/" + strings.Join(pkgs, ",")
 	resp, err := http.Get(path)
 
 	if err != nil {
-		return Daily{}, err
+		return daily, err
+	}
+	// This is currently kind of meaningless until
+	// https://github.com/r-hub/cranlogs.app/issues/41 is resolved but at least
+	// its there
+	if resp.StatusCode != 200 {
+		return daily, err
 	}
-
 	defer resp.Body.Close()
 
 	body, err := ioutil.ReadAll(resp.Body)
 
 	if err != nil {
-		return Daily{}, err
+		return daily, err
 	}
 
 	err = json.Unmarshal(body, &daily)
-
+	// if this errors given the current 200 status code returning an error response
+	// such as { "error": "Invalid query",   "info": "https://github.com/metacran/cranlogs.app" }
+	// its still not the best error code
 	if err != nil {
-		return Daily{}, err
+		return daily, err
 	}
 
-	return daily[0], nil
+	return daily, nil
 }