Ranking 2015 Children’s Bestsellers

Penguin Random House’s domination of PW’s two weekly children’s bestseller lists (frontlist fiction and picture books) increased in 2015, but its hold on the fiction list lessened a bit compared to 2014. PRH had 62 titles on our picture book bestseller list in 2015; the list includes 25 titles per week, and of the 1,300 available bestseller slots over the course of the year, PRH’s books occupied 597 spots, or 45.9% In 2014, the company had a 41.5% share of picture book bestseller slots. However, the publisher’s share of the fiction list slipped in 2015. Although it placed more titles on our fiction list in 2015 compared to 2014 (39 vs. 34), its titles did not stay in the top 25 for as long as in 2014. So PRH’s share of fiction bestseller slots fell to 19.8%, from 24.8% in 2014.

HarperCollins improved its standing on our fiction bestseller list in 2015 and came in a close second to PRH, grabbing 18% of available slots. HC had three frontlist titles among the 10 books that spent the longest time on the fiction bestseller list, including The One and Only Ivan, which was on the list for 49 weeks, tying it with Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul for the longest stay on the chart. The Long Haul was one of two titles published by Abrams that had staying power on the bestseller list last year, as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl remained on the chart for 27 weeks. Those long hauls for Abrams gave the company a 8.1% share of fiction bestseller spots last year, allowing the publisher to finish slightly ahead of Simon & Schuster.

PRH’s huge lead in the picture book category was led by the Random House division, which had 29 titles on our bestseller list in 2015. Of those titles, 19 were written by Dr. Seuss. Two Seuss titles—Dr. Seuss’s ABC and Oh, the Places You’ll Go!—were among the 11 longest-running picture book bestsellers last year, and the PRH family had a total of five books in the top 11.

Macmillan finished second to PRH in terms of its share of picture book bestseller slots, posting a 11.2% share. Although Macmillan only had nine books that made the picture book bestseller list, three of those titles had long bestseller stays: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (44 weeks), First 100 Words (40 weeks), and On the Night You Were Born (35 weeks). In third place, HarperCollins had 17 titles hit the picture book list, but Goodnight Moon was the only one among the top 11 longest-running within the category.

Children's Bestsellers by Publisher

Frontlist Fiction

Picture Books

* This figure represents the publisher’s share of the 1,300 bestseller positions on the list in question during the year indicated (there are 25 positions on each weekly list).

Note: Our 2015 children’s bestsellers-by-house rankings are determined using data from our two weekly children’s bestseller lists: frontlist fiction and picture books. These lists are based on print unit sales at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks roughly 80% of the print market.