The dominance of the Big Five publishers over national bestseller lists is nothing new. It's such a given, in fact, that last week the Independent Publisher Caucus launched the Independent Press Top 40 bestseller list in tandem with the American Booksellers Association, with the aim of shining a spotlight on books from independent publishers that would otherwise be unable to crack those lists.

The results of our annual review of bestsellers-by-publisher did indeed show that the Big Five publishers did indeed reign supreme over the 2025 PW adult bestseller lists, powered by Circana BookScan.

But we also found that in 2025, the Big Five lost some of their grip on hardcover bestsellers compared to 2024, accounting for 83% of available slots on the hardcover list, down from 86% in 2024. Their share of trade paperback bestsellers, however, moved up to 42% from 39% in 2024.

As usual, this year’s PW rankings are derived by multiplying the 20 weekly bestseller slots PW gives to each of the adult hardcover fiction, nonfiction, and trade paperback formats by 52 weeks, leaving 1,040 spots for each list.

Penguin Random House grabbed the largest share of hardcover bestsellers, snagging 38% of available slots. The remaining Big Five were bunched up far behind PRH: Simon & Schuster 13%; Hachette Book Group 12%; Macmillan 10%; and HarperCollins 9%.

Despite the major publisher dominance on the hardcover list, a couple of independent publishers had a good 2025. Entangled Publishing had 16 titles hit the fiction list, led by two editions of Onyx Storm, and occupied a total of 89 positions—a total that surpassed that of HarperCollins.

And in hardcover nonfiction, Authors Equity placed five books on the PW list, taking up 56 positions. The new publisher’s Don’t Believe Everything You Think was on the nonfiction list for 44 weeks.

In trade paperback, Sourcebooks remained the dominant publisher, placing 67 titles across four imprints and occupying 31% of available positions, the same percentage as 2024. Its Bloom Books imprint had 43 titles hit the list, but Poisoned Pen took up 206 positions as eight books by Freida McFadden had double-digit stays on the bestseller list. (Though majority-owned by PRH, Sourcebooks remains structurally and operationally separate from PRH.)

After cracking the trade paperback bestseller list in a significant way in 2024, Zando followed up its 2024 performance by placing nine titles on the trade paperback list for a total of 108 positions. Two Navessa Allen novels led the charge, with bestseller stays of 25 and 33 weeks.

Finally, Viz Media had what has becoming something of an annual tradition: placing multiple titles on the trade paperback list—29 books last year—coupled with short runs, with its bestsellers staying on the list for a total of 34 weeks in 2025.

Big Five Bestsellers by the Numbers

Hachette Book Group

  • Hardcover Fiction: 40 titles, 186 positions
  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 38 titles, 66 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 19 titles, 77 positions

HarperCollins

  • Hardcover Fiction: 33 titles, 74 positions
  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 58 titles, 121 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 32 titles, 111 positions

Macmillan

  • Hardcover Fiction: 50 titles, 155 positions
  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 29 titles, 58 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 11 titles, 25 positions

Penguin Random House

  • Hardcover Fiction: 99 titles, 336 positions
  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 132 titles, 463 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 41 titles, 194 positions

Simon & Schuster

  • Hardcover Fiction: 37 titles, 124 positions
  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 50 titles, 150 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 21 titles, 33 positions

Notable Independent and Other Non–Big Five Bestseller Achievements

Authors Equity

  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 5 titles, 56 positions

Ben Bella

  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 9 titles, 14 positions

Blackstone

  • Hardcover Fiction: 2 titles, 22 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 1 title, 8 positions

Entangled Publishing

  • Hardcover Fiction: 16 titles, 89 positions
  • Trade Paperback : 9 titles, 68 positions

Kensington Publishing

  • Hardcover Fiction: 3 titles, 5 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 9 titles, 11 positions

Norton

  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 4 titles, 11 positions

Sourcebooks

  • Hardcover Fiction: 9 titles, 21 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 67 titles, 328 positions

Viz Media

  • Hardcover Fiction: 5 titles; 5 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 29 titles, 34 positions

Wiley

  • Hardcover Nonfiction: 16 titles, 19 positions

Zando

  • Hardcover Fiction: 2 titles, 7 positions
  • Trade Paperback: 9 titles, 108 positions

Source: Publishers Weekly