Data showing how many books were sold in 2023 revealed that the printed book market remains healthy: a total of 767.36 million units were sold that year among outlets which reported to the source. Whilst this marked a small drop from the previous year, the figure still remains higher than in the years prior to 2021. Trade paperbacks remained the dominant format.

Book sales statistics Looking at book sales by year, 2005 to 2010 were the most lucrative for the printed book market, with well over 700 million units sold annually during that five-year period. After dropping below 600 million in 2012, gradual and consistent increases can be seen each year, with the exception of between the years 2018 and 2019. For bookstores though, how many books are sold each year depends on the success of key months across a twelve-month period.

Bookstore sales in the United States are at their highest in December, January, and August, but figures for December are consistently higher than other months. Books are popular holiday gifts, with around 30 to 40 percent of consumers responding to annual surveys in each year from 2012 to 2020 saying that they planned to purchase books as presents during the festive season.

Adult fiction book sales increased by 0.8 percent between 2022 and 2023, with 2023 unit sales hitting 190.8 million, up from just over 189 million in the previous year. All other categories saw a year over year decrease in print unit sales, particularly juvenile non-fiction, which suffered a decrease of 7.1 percent.

Trade e-book revenue amounted to one billion U.S. dollars in 2023. The source noted that e-book sales revenue grew only marginally by 0.6 percent between 2022 and 2023, whereas digital audio revenue was up by almost 15 percent.

Retail sales data for bookstores in the United States showed that the sales of U.S. book retailers amounted to 596 million U.S. dollars in November 2023, marking a decrease from the 618 million recorded in the same month of the previous year. Book formats in the United States Print books still generate the majority of book sales revenue in the United States, with hardback books alone pulling in 3.7 billion U.S. dollars of the 9.5 billion total in 2021. Meanwhile, e-book sales growth is sluggish. The number of e-books sold each year is notoriously difficult to track and results depend on the data provided by publishers, and official figures show that annual e-book revenue has yet to reach 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. When it comes to audiobooks, physical audiobook revenue has fallen consistently since 2017, whereas downloaded audio revenue is increasing. Audiobook consumption Audiobook sales revenue is climbing in tandem with the share of U.S. adults listening to audiobooks in general. One of the advantages of audiobooks is the ability to enjoy them whilst on the move, but data shows that more and more consumers have begun listening to them at home. Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic led to increased in-home media consumption, the home was already a popular location for audiobook listening prior to the outbreak, with a survey from 2019 revealing that the same share of respondents listened to audiobooks at home as those who did so in the car.

Given their unique appeal, audiobooks will continue to gather ground. Print, however, is still the preferred book format, and new print books outperform used books in terms of popularity which is good news for the book market.

The best-selling print book in the United States in 2023 ranked by unit sales was "It Ends With Us" by Colleen Hoover, with a total of just over 1.29 million sales. Other successful books which sold well that year included two more by Hoover, including "It Starts With Us" and "Verity". The top 10 best-selling print books in 2023 were written mostly by women, with Rebecca Yarros also enjoying over one million unit sales of both her books "Fourth Wing" and "Iron Flames". Prince Harry's book "Spare" ranked third with 1.22 million units sold.

Print book sales remain stable

In 2023, adult nonfiction sales of print books in the U.S. amounted to over 280 million. Whilst this was the lowest recorded since 2017, the category remained the bestselling book category. Adult fiction sales on the other hand rose to over 190 million units, continuing the upward trend from previous years. Despite the growing prevalence of digital books, print remains a popular option.

Print still accounts for the majority of U.S. book sales revenue

According to the most recently available data, the size of the U.S. audiobook market was estimated at 1.8 billion U.S. dollars, and could soon surpass the two billion dollar mark if annual growth continues at the same rate. Whilst sales of digital books are generally more difficult to track and therefore prone to adjustments, data shows that print still accounts for the majority of U.S. books sales revenue, at roughly three times the amount generated by e-books and audiobooks combined. Print book sales in the U.S are overall higher than in the early 2000s, showing not only an ongoing interest in the format but even an uptick in book buying in recent years.

In 2023, total publisher sales of books, journals, and rights for both physical and digital formats reached 7.1 billion British pounds, up from 6.9 billion GBP in the previous year. Print accounted for 3.9 billion British pounds of sales revenue in 2023, and digital revenue grew by five percent year over year to reach 3.2 billion GBP.

In 2023, the book sales revenue totaled 64.22 billion forints in Hungary. This represented an increase compared to the previous year and figures even exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Children's and young adult book sales increased by roughly 2.4 percent in Germany in 2023 compared to the previous year. Audiobooks recorded the largest drop in sales at almost 23 percent.

A total of 439.7 million books were sold in France in 2023, marking a decrease of about two percent from the previous year. By contrast, 2021 recorded a peak in sales and reached a total of 486.1 million books.

Data on global book publishing revealed that book sales generated 122 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2018, and will amount to 129 billion in 2023. The source has previously estimated that book publishing revenues would not reach 122 until after the year 2021, so the current figures look positive and are predicted to increase by 1.2 percent over the next five years.

In 2023, U.S. book store sales reached 8.3 billion U.S. dollars according to preliminary estimates, down from 8.35 billion in the previous year. The 2023 figure will be subject to later adjustments, but demonstrated an drop from the figures for both 2021 and 2022, and sales are yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

After reaching its highest number of the past decade with a total of more than 481 million books sold in 2021 in France, that value dropped to reach about 440 million euros in 2023. That corresponds to a decrease of about two percent in comparison to the previous year.

In 2023, roughly 41 million e-books were sold on the German consumer market. This was an increase of almost 4 million copies, or around ten percent compared to 2022. Sales have risen considerably in the long term. For comparison: 2010, only 1.9 million e-book copies were sold in Germany.

A report measuring book sales revenue growth in selected markets in 2023 revealed that Mexico's market saw growth of 11.4 percent, whereas New Zealand suffered a decline in sales growth of 5.4 percent. The report noted that higher book prices compensated for lower unit sales.

Non-fiction books accounted for a third of all units sold in Canada in 2023, down from 32 percent in the previous year. As has been the case for several years, juvenile and young adult books accounted for the majority of sales, while fiction books made up 28 percent of the total.

Canada’s book market The number of books sold in Canada has ranged from 52 million to almost 54.7 million over the past few years. In 2021, when approximately 54.6 million units were sold, Canadian book sales revenue reached a record 1.12 billion Canadian dollars. While interest in books is as high as ever, the channels used to discover and purchase print literature have visibly changed since the proliferation of online shopping platforms. In a 2018 survey on Canadian reading behavior and preferences, 42 percent of readers listed online channels as their most used retail sales channels for buying books, with Amazon being the preferred choice for over half of respondents.

Reading trends and preferences Despite the ever-increasing global popularity of e-books, paperback and hardcover print editions remain the most purchased book formats in Canada. According to a recent survey, some 20 percent of Canadian readers read print books daily, while another 22 percent did so several times per week. Another survey revealed that the frequency of listening to audiobooks in Canada has also considerably increased in recent years, with more Canadians consuming audiobook content on a daily basis than ever before.

In 2023, the revenue from children's and youth book sales in printed format in Sweden amounted to 645.4 million Swedish kronor, making printed books in this category one of the most lucrative revenue sources for the book market. Crime and suspense literature however generated a total sales revenue of over 970.11 million Swedish kronor in both printed and streamed format, making it overall the most lucrative revenue source on the Swedish book market.

In 2022 and in 2023, respectively 43 million books were sold in the Netherlands. This marked an increase from previous years, where the figure hovered between 39 and 41 million.

Over 35 percent of revenue generated in 2023 was due to fiction sales, followed by children's and young adult books. Self-help books brought up the top three.

After decreasing to 27.73 million euros in 2022, sales revenue of e-books in Latin America peaked to 42.33 million euros in 2023. Mexico and Chile accounted for most of the e-book sales in the region that year.

In 2023, children's literature accounted for 34 percent of the total book sales revenue in Hungary. Literature also contributed considerably to the sales, occupying a 33.6 percent share.