Stats You Should Know

by Penny Sansevieri

Wordsrated.com recently completed an in-depth statistical report on the fiction book market. The big takeaway is that over 52.88% of all print book sales in the United States during 2022 were fiction books, making 2022 the second consecutive year when fiction books outsold nonfiction!

Adult fiction accounted for 24.7% of all book sales with more than 189 million books in this genre sold.

Children’s fiction books accounted for 24.08% of the market with 184 million books sold.

YA fiction accounted for 4.06% of all book sales with 31 million books sold.

More interesting statistics Wordsrated.com compiled about fiction book sales:

Best-selling fiction book of all time: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, with 140.6 million copies sold.

According to official stats, there are only 99 authors who have sold more than 100 million books so far.

All of the top 10 best-selling books of all time are fiction books, and 43 out of the top 50 belong to fiction.


Penny Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. (AME) and an adjunct professor at NYU, is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns.

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