Print Book Sales Rose Slightly in 2025

For the second consecutive year, unit sales of print books were up at outlets that report to Circana BookScan, hitting 762.4 million in 2025. That marks a 0.3% increase over 2024, which in turn saw sales grow 0.5% over 2023. Since sales peaked in 2021 at 839.7 million copies, they have settled at levels higher than before the pandemic, though not as high as many publishers had hoped.

Postpandemic, adult fiction—helped by the emergence of BookTok—has been the strongest segment, and adult fiction sales did increase again in 2025, but they were up just 1%, compared to a nearly 5% increase in 2024 over 2023. Sales in the romance category rose 3.9%, to almost 44 million units, while fantasy sales fell 8.7%, to 24.1 million. BookScan doesn’t have a romantasy category, but the big driver in romance was the romantasy favorite Onyx Storm (Wing and Claw Collection) by Rebecca Yarros, which sold nearly 1.7 million copies during the year. The standard edition of Onyx Storm sold another 573,000 copies.

Elsewhere in adult fiction, after two years of declines, sales of graphic novels bounced back, rising 9.2% in 2025, to 25.9 million units. Science fiction posted the largest increase among adult fiction categories, with sales up 22.1%, to just over six million units. Suspense and thriller sales fell 2.2%, to 25.5 million units.

Adult nonfiction remains the industry’s largest segment by a wide margin, even with unit sales down 1.5% in 2025, following a 0.5% drop in 2024. Among the segment’s largest categories, religion posted a 5.4% increase, with unit sales approaching 67 million. Self-help had a good year, with sales up 14.7%, led by The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, which sold more than 2.8 million copies in 2025, making it the bestselling book of the year at BookScan outlets. On the downside, sales of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs dropped 7%, while sales of business and economic books fell 3.9%.

The children’s fiction category had a mild rebound last year, with unit sales up 1.6%. The top titles were from two perennial bestselling authors: Jeff Kinney’s latest Wimpy Kid installment, Partypooper, sold more than 817,000 copies, while Dav Pilkey’s latest Dog Man entry, Big Jim Believes, sold more than 767,000 copies. Children’s nonfiction posted a 3.6% sales increase. Two bibles topped the category bestseller list: The Action Bible: God’s Redemptive Story by Sergio Cariello sold nearly 478,000 copies, and The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories sold more than 331,000 copies.

The young adult segment had mixed results, with the larger fiction category posting a 1.8% decline, while nonfiction sales increased 3.8%. The decline in fiction came despite a big showing by Suzanne Collins’s Sunrise on the Reaping, which sold just over two million copies.

As usual, the vast majority of titles topping the 2025 bestseller list came from large publishers. The bestselling book from an independent publisher was Lights Out by Navessa Allen, which was published by Zando and sold more than 595,000 copies.

Courtesy Circana Bookscan.