Print Sales Fell 3.1% in the First Quarter of 2026

Unit sales of print books had a slow start in 2026, according to data from Circana BookScan. Total unit sales fell 3.1% compared to a year ago for the quarter ending March 28, 2026, dropping to 163.5 million copies sold. Only the children's category posted a sales increase over the first quarter of 2025.

Though the young adult category had the steepest percentage decline, adult nonfiction, the industry's biggest category, lost the most sales, selling some 5.5 million fewer copies in the most recent quarter than a year ago. Only two of adult nonfiction's 16 subcategories, crafts/hobbies/antiques/games and religion, had an increase in the quarter, posting a 9.6% and 1.6% gain, respectively. Self-help had the largest decline with units dropping 26.3% while home/gardening sales fell 24.4%.

The category lacked a book with the sales punch of the self-help blockbusters The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and Atomic Habits by James Clear, which saw respective sales of 962,291 and 253,341 in last year’s first quarter. Those two books were atop the category chart in the most recent quarter, but sold in more modest numbers, with The Let Them Theory selling just under 360,000 copies and Atomic Habits selling just over 151,000 copies. The only new title to make a splash in the category was Stop, In the Name of God by Charlie Kirk, which sold over 164,000 copies.

The adult fiction segment, where growth has slowed in recent years, saw unit sales dip 0.8%. Romance sales plunged 25.4% largely due to the eye-popping sales Onyx Storm posted last year, selling a total of about 1.9 million copies. The top adult fiction seller in the most recent quarter, as well as the #1 selling book overall, was Theo of Golden, published last fall, which sold more than 470,000 copies. Freida McFadden remained a hot author in the quarter and had the category’s bestselling book published in 2026, Dear Debbie, which sold nearly 333,000 copies since its release in January.

The graphic novel category also showed signs of rebounding from last year’s collapse of Diamond Comic Distributors, with sales jumping 28.5% in the quarter.

Children's sales likely benefited from an earlier Easter this year than in 2025 (though both Easters are in the second quarter, this year the holiday is on April 5 instead of April 20). Green Eggs and Ham was number one in the category, selling just under 160,000 copies.

Young adult sales generally don’t benefit too much from Easter and no title came close to matching Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest in Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series, which sold more than 936,000 copies in last year’s first quarter. Sunrise sold about 70,000 copies in the most recent quarter.

Q1 Unit Sales of Print Books By Category
(in thousands)

The Top 10 Bestselling Books of 2026 (So Far)

Source: Circana BookScan