Sales of printed magazines in the United Kingdom have fallen yet again. The number of magazine titles sold in 2018 stood at 373.8 million copies, which is more than 100 million copies fewer than were sold in 2016. Back in 2011, there were over 820 million copies sold. A clear and substantial decline.

Online magazines and newspapers

Printed magazines haven’t been selling well in recent years, but how have online magazines been faring? The share of individuals reading or downloading online news, newspapers and magazines in Great Britain has grown. In 2018, over two thirds of Brits were getting their news, newspaper and magazine fix online. And in 2019, one survey revealed that almost one in ten people in the UK had paid for or accessed a paid for online news service.

Advertising revenue takes a hit

Due to the steady fall in sales, magazine advertising revenue has been badly affected. And this decline looks set to continue, with predictions suggesting magazine advertising in the United Kingdom will drop to 0.64 billion British pounds in 2020, which is roughly half of what it was in 2011.

AARP The Magazine was the leading U.S. magazine in the first half of 2023, with a paid and non-paid circulation of ***** million. In second place was the AARP Bulletin with ***** million. These two magazines had by far the highest circulation of all magazines analyzed by the source, with Costco Connection in third place with a circulation of just over ** million, followed by American Mainstreet with a little over ** million. Magazine brands and categories The fastest-growing magazine brand in the United States in 2020 was experiential travel magazine Afar. Largely thanks to an increase in mobile web visitors, the magazine’s average monthly audience climbed by ** percent year-over-year. Travel was, however, not among the top-performing magazine categories in the United States in 2020, and data showed that just one travel magazine was launched that year. The majority of magazines launched were in the special interest category. Magazine readership U.S. magazine readers still prefer print magazines to digital versions. At the same time, the average mobile web audience of magazine brands is growing. In fact, data from December 2020 showed that ** percent of magazine access in the United States occurred via mobile web, very close to the share of adults reading printed magazines or online versions thereof. The number of magazine readers climbed semi-consistently between 2012 and 2019, although the figure dipped below *** million in 2020. The source partially attributed this to the drop in pass-along readership during the COVID-19 pandemic, as trends showed that without the outbreak, the number was on track to reach *** million.

The graph shows data on the reach of popular magazines in the United States in June 2019. ESPN The Magazine had a reach of over 106 million people, and ranking second was People Magazine which had a reach of 98.51 million.

Reach of popular magazines – additional information

ESPN The Magazine is a biweekly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network. As of 2015, it had a circulation of almost 2.14 million copies, the vast majority of which were sold through its subscription services. ESPN’s television network also has a large audience, with an estimated monthly household reach of 48 percent during the 2014/15 sports season, a ten percent increase from the 2011/12 season.

The number of magazine readers in the United States has increased in the last four years, with an estimated total of 216.5 million adult readers in 2015. This has coincided with an increase in digital magazine readers, as there were 16 million U.S. digital magazine readers in 2015, in comparison to 3.3 million in 2011. ESPN The Magazine also has the largest mobile audience in the United States, with an estimated 47.8 million unique visitors in 2016. Forbes has the second highest mobile audience, with just over 40.5 million visitors in the same time period.

AARP The Magazine, the bi-monthly magazine published by the American Association of Retired People, AARP, had just over five million unique mobile visitors in 2016. However, it had the largest subscription circulation in the United States as it sold over 23.4 million copies through its subscription service in 2015. This large subscription audience meant that it was ranked eighth in the list of magazines with the largest audience in the United States in July 2016.

The statistic shows the annual combined paid and verified average circulation per issue of U.S. magazines from 2000 to 2012. In the last measured year, the combined circulation amounted to 352.6 million copies.

The statistic provides information on the newsstand magazine unit sales in North America in 2015 and 2016, broken down by category. According to the source, there were 102.4 million copies of celebrity magazines sold in the region in 2016, down from 128.3 million a year earlier.

The leading U.S. magazine brand website in the country in March 2021 was WebMD Magazine, which drew in 12.7 million unique online visitors that month. Seventh on the list was The Atlantic, an American magazine founded in 1857 in Boston, which provides online and print content. Printed magazine media in the U.S. Print media has been deeply affected by the digital revolution and many magazines and newspapers have had to move online (with some axing their print formats altogether) to retain readers. Making changes to adapt to modern media consumption has long been the norm for traditional publications, and some magazine brands have turned to video in an effort to draw in a larger audience. The share of magazine brands audience via video more than doubled between June 2018 and December of the same year, indicating that this platform could gain traction in years to come if this trend continues.

Magazine reader preferences Data from a study on magazine readership in the United States showed that the majority of U.S. magazine readers prefer print. Although that fact may come as a surprise to digital converts, many industry professionals and experts who continue to believe in and advocate for printed magazines will feel vindicated. Moreover, the magazine audience in the U.S. has actually increased consistently since 2012 and the number of print consumer magazines in circulation has also remained stable.

With a sales value of 200.7 billion Japanese yen, regular monthly magazines were the largest segment of the print magazine market in Japan in 2022. The sales value of the print publishing industry, which also includes printed books, amounted to approximately 1.13 trillion yen during that year.

The graph shows revenue from magazine newsstand sales in the United States in 2007 and 2017. Magazine retail sales generated two billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2017, down from 4.9 billion ten years earlier.

There were ***** print consumer magazines in the United States in 2020, up from ***** in the previous year. The number of magazines in the United States was formerly at its highest in 2012, when ***** consumer magazines circulated throughout the American market. In the modern age, magazines are now available in both printed and electronic formats. As of 2018, the printed magazine industry remained popular with consumers, although the daily time spent with print media was just ** minutes, whereas several hours were spent watching television or using the internet. Nevertheless, an increase in the number of magazines available is a welcome change from the gradual decline which had previously been ongoing since 2015. The success of a magazine can be measured in a variety of ways such as circulation, digital replica circulation, revenue and annual growth. Single copy sales are also a key indicator of a magazine’s performance. Some of the most popular magazines in the United States based on their total reach include ESPN The Magazine, People magazine, and National Geographic.

In 2021, there were ***** million magazine readers aged 18 or older in the United States. This marked an increase of *** thousand readers from the previous year. The number dropped substantially between 2019 and 2020, which the source partially attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting reduction in pass-along reading. The figure for 2019, on the other hand, was the highest recorded since 2012, and trends during that period indicated a slow annual increase in the number of magazine readers. Magazine reading behavior Magazine readership is changing. On the one hand, data from surveys held in 2019 and 2020 found that print magazines remained the preferred magazine format, but there was also a growing interest in online versions. The audience of magazine brands was comprised mostly of readers of print magazine and their digital counterparts in December 2020, but mobile web came a very close second with a year-to-date average audience of over *** million. If this trend continues, magazine brands’ mobile web visitors will account for the majority of their audience in the next one to two years. Magazine brands In 2020, the fastest-growing magazine brand in the United States was experiential travel publication Afar. The magazine's average monthly audience grew by almost ** percent compared to the previous year, partly thanks to a boost in the publication's mobile web visitors. The most recently available data on other travel magazine brands found that several publications in that category enjoyed a large mobile web audience, and Condé Nast Traveler had a video audience of over *** million. The leading consumer magazine in the United States by circulation in the first half of 2021 was AARP The Magazine, with a circulation of close to ** million.

This statistic shows the monthly women's magazines with the highest paid circulation in Germany in the second quarter of 2024. During the period of consideration, the InStyle ranked first with 173,036 copies sold, followed by Cosmopolitan and FREIZEIT TOTAL.

The sales value of printed comic magazines in Japan was estimated at 44.9 billion Japanese yen in 2024. The market size more than halved since 2015. Next to printed comic magazines, the Japanese comic market also encompasses printed comic books and digital comics. The latter category also includes digital comic magazines.

This statistic displays the percentage change in print magazine retail sales volume in the United Kingdom in 2019 compared to 2018, broken down by sector. The home improvement sector performed strongest with an decrease of 0.7 percent in volume sales.

The fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue reached around 2.7 million individuals between April 2019 and March 2020 in the United Kingdom. During this period, nearly two million women read the title. Considering reach by print and online, the latest figure marks the highest monthly reach of the magazine since 2013. Figures in 2018

Between January and June 2019, Vogue magazine sold over 73.4 thousand copies, placing it in the top ten women’s lifestyle and fashion magazines in the United Kingdom.

Magazine readership

As of 2020, the phone is the most used platform for consuming magazine brands in the UK. Over half of British adults claim they access their favorite magazines via their phone, compared to 38 percent that read print magazines at least monthly. Print magazines sales have been decreasing over recent years, standing at roughly 634 thousand million British pounds in 2018.

This statistic displays the percentage change in print magazine retail sales revenue in the United Kingdom (UK), by sector in 2019. The home improvement sector performed strongest with a revenue growth of 4.1 percent. Print sales revenue of children's magazines fell by 30.7 percent compared to the previous year.

The statistic depicts the sales revenue of books and magazines in Japan in 2015, broken down by channel. That year, the highest turnover for book and magazine sales was recorded for bookstores with an estimated sales value of approximately 1.2 trillion Japanese yen.

In 2024, roughly 43.3 million copies of consumer magazines were sold, according to the Information Community for the Assessment of the Circulation of Media (IVW). Figures decreased noticeably in recent years.

In April 2025, about **** billion newspapers were sold in China. The sales volume has seen a fluctuating trend in the past few years. Digital media is the future The media industry is a multi-trillion-dollar market in China, growing two-fold in the recent decade. One main revenue source in this industry comes from advertisement. In recent years, the distribution of ad spending in China gradually shifted away from traditional media channels towards internet and mobile advertisements. Digital media takes up over half of total ad spending in China, with ByteDance and Alibaba being the largest online ad companies.
Print media industry in China In China, print media such as newspapers and magazines were on the wane in general. In the recent decade, the number of newspaper publications in China has declined, coinciding with a constant decrease in the sales volume. On the other side, the number of magazine publications saw a gain of *** magazines from 2013 to 2023, while the total amount of magazine copies sold was reduced by *** billion copies.

In 2018, magazine sales revenue in Mexico amounted to 807.15 million Mexican pesos. That year, approximately 86 million magazine copies were sold in Mexico.

The circulation of the men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine Playboy has dropped significantly in recent years, falling to just over 200 thousand in 2018 from 1.2 million five years earlier. The magazine reported its highest global circulation in 1975, when an average issue sold 5.6 million copies.

Playboy circulation numbers – additional information

Founded in 1953 by the late Hugh Hefner, Playboy is a men’s lifestyle and entertainment magazine. Playboy started in Chicago, and is now published in more than 50 countries. The first foreign edition was launched in Germany in 1972. In 2018, Playboy magazine reached around 740 thousand readers per issue in Germany. The magazine’s logo, which is a silhouette of a rabbit in a tuxedo bow tie, is one of the most recognizable trademarks in the world. Thanks to its strong brand and reputation over the years, Playboy frequently used to feature in a ranking of leading magazines on social media, however the publication's dwindling popularity saw the brand drop off the list. As of March 2016, about 16.82 million people liked Playboy’s page on Facebook, and had 4.6 million Instagram followers, but since then has been overtaken by Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair amongst others.

Cooper Hefner (son of Hugh Hefner) has made multiple attempts to redefine, rebrand and restyle the publication during his time as chief creative officer, including removing nudity from the magazine and then deciding to include it again shortly afterwards. Despite his efforts, it seems unlikely that Playboy will ever successfully regain the influence or popularity it enjoyed in the 1970s, however the brand itself will likely live on in consumer's memories young and old for many years to come.