Publishing is often described as either dying or booming, depending on who’s talking. The 2025 numbers tell a calmer story: a stable market, modest growth in revenue, and big shifts happening inside it. Here’s what the two most-quoted industry datasets show.
The two datasets that matter
- Circana BookScan tracks print book unit sales from retailers that report to it, which covers most, but not all, of the US market. It’s the source behind most bestseller rankings.
- The Association of American Publishers (AAP) StatShot reports publisher revenue across formats, including ebooks and audio that BookScan doesn’t cover.
Neither is complete on its own. Together they give a good picture.
Print sales: flat, and below the pandemic peak
According to Circana BookScan, US print book sales in 2025 reached 762.4 million units, up 0.3% on 2024. That’s essentially flat, and still well below the pandemic peak of 839.7 million units in 2021, when lockdowns sent book sales soaring.
So print hasn’t recovered its 2021 highs. It also hasn’t collapsed. For an industry that was declared dead when ebooks arrived in 2010, steady sales of three-quarters of a billion print books a year is a sign of resilience.
Publisher revenue: up 2.5%
The AAP reported total US publishing revenue of $33.4 billion in 2025, up 2.5% from $32.5 billion in 2024. Trade publishing, meaning books sold to general consumers, brought in $21.7 billion, up 2.7%.
Every major consumer format grew:
| Trade format | 2025 revenue | Change vs 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Hardback | $8.0 billion | +3.9% |
| Paperback | $7.8 billion | +2.0% |
| Ebook | not separately reported | +3.0% |
| Digital audio | not separately reported | +5.3% |
Digital audio grew fastest, continuing a long trend. We dig into that in our audiobook statistics guide.
Which genres grew, and which shrank
The category data is where 2025 gets interesting.
The winners:
- Science fiction jumped 22.1% to just over 6 million units, the biggest gain of any adult fiction category. It’s a small category, but the growth is real. If you’re curious, our science fiction for beginners list is a good place to start, and Project Hail Mary (our review) is a big part of why the genre is attracting new readers.
- Self-help rose 14.7%, with Mel Robbins’ The Let Them Theory, the year’s best-selling print book, leading the way.
- Graphic novels grew 9.2% to 25.9 million units.
- Religion grew 5.4% to nearly 67 million units, one of the largest nonfiction categories.
- Romance rose 3.9% to almost 44 million units, adding to several years of strong growth.
The losers:
- Fantasy fell 8.7% to 24.1 million units, partly because 2024 had been an unusually big year.
- Biography and memoir dropped 7%.
- Business and economics slipped 3.9%.
- Suspense and thrillers fell 2.2% to 25.5 million.
Overall, adult fiction grew about 1% while adult nonfiction fell 1.5%, though nonfiction remains the largest adult segment by units.
What it means for readers
A few practical takeaways:
- Print is not going anywhere. Most books are still bought on paper, and hardback revenue is growing.
- Audio is the growth format. If you haven’t tried audiobooks, the selection and quality have never been better.
- Genres move in waves. Romantasy boomed in 2023–2024, science fiction surged in 2025. Bestseller lists are shaped by a handful of huge titles, which we cover in the bestselling books of 2025.
A note on the numbers
BookScan covers print only and only from reporting outlets, so it undercounts total sales. AAP figures are revenue, not units, and come from participating publishers. We’ve reported both as published and avoided combining them.
Sources: Publishers Weekly on Circana BookScan 2025 results · Association of American Publishers, StatShot Annual 2025
Frequently asked questions
How many books were sold in the US in 2025?
Circana BookScan recorded 762.4 million print book units sold in 2025, up 0.3% on 2024. That excludes ebooks, audiobooks and some retailers that don't report to BookScan.
How big is the US publishing industry?
The Association of American Publishers reported $33.4 billion in total US publishing revenue for 2025, including $21.7 billion from trade (consumer) books.
Which book genre grew the most in 2025?
Among adult fiction categories, science fiction grew fastest at 22.1%. In nonfiction, self-help rose 14.7%.
Are print book sales declining?
Not in 2025. Sales were flat at 762.4 million units, below the 2021 pandemic peak of 839.7 million but stable year on year.
