NPD Reports “Fifty Shades of Grey” Was the Best-Selling Book of the Decade in the U.S.

From NPD:

The best-selling book of the past decade in the United States was “Fifty Shades of Grey,” by E.L. James, which sold 15.2 million copies from 2010 through 2019. In fact, the series holds the top three positions on the decade’s top-ten ranking list, with nearly 35 million print and e-book sales, according to global information company The NPD Group.  Many of the recent decade’s top-selling books, including these leaders, were tied to movie adaptations, which is a testament to the marketing power Hollywood brings to book sales.

When comparing the top 10 adult books each year throughout the past decade, more non-fiction titles topped the NPD Bookscan charts in the second half of the decade than in the first half. In 2010, nearly 80 percent of the top-selling titles were fiction, and by 2019 that percentage dropped to 32 percent. “This consumer push for informational titles over fiction was reflected in larger non-fiction trends in the second half of the decade—such as the rise in cookbooks, self-help, and politics—which pushed more non-fiction titles into the top ten list,” said Kristen McLean, books industry analyst, NPD Bookscan.

Overall 6.5 billion print books were sold over the past decade, compared to just 1.8 billion e-books. “At the start of the decade, digital e-books were expected to decimate print book sales,” McLean said. “However, print books have remained surprisingly resilient. After a high point in 2013, e-books have continuously lost share to print books every year. Looking ahead, the growth in audiobooks is another trend expected to continue well into the next decade, as people shift some of their reading to listening on smart devices.”

Another effect of the advent of smartphones and tablets has been a downward trend in the average page count for leading titles over the past decade. “We ultimately consumed media much differently at the end of the decade than we did at the start,” McLean said. “More forms of media entertainment are now competing for our attention. As a result, the print books we’re reading are shorter, because there are more demands on consumers’ free time, as they stream more video and listen to more podcasts and audiobooks.”

The growth in poetry and self-help categories in the latter half of the decade also shortened the average page count.  Leading poetry collections like “Milk and Honey”—along with popular self-help titles like “Girl, Wash Your Face” and “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”—are comparatively short. Each one coming in at under 250 pages.

Rank	Title	Author	Publisher	Year	Unit Sales
1.	Fifty Shades of Grey	E. L. James	Random House	2011	15.2 million
2.	Fifty Shades Darker	E. L. James	Random House	2011	10.4 million
3.	Fifty Shades Freed	E. L. James	Random House	2012	9.3 million
4.	The Hunger Games	Suzanne Collins	Scholastic Books	2008	8.7 million
5.	The Help	Kathryn Stockett	Penguin Group USA	2009	8.7 million
6.	The Girl on The Train	Paula Hawkins	Penguin Group USA	2015	8.2 million
7.	Gone Girl	Gillian Flynn	Random House	2012	8.1 million
8.	The Fault in Our Stars	John Green,	Penguin Group	2012	8 million
9.	The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo	Stieg Larsson	Random House	2008	7.9 million
10.	Divergent	Veronica Roth	Harpercollins Publishers	2011	6.6 million
Source: The NPD Group / NPD Bookscan, NPD PubTrack Digital, includes U.S. print book and e-book sales, 2010-2019.

See Also: Top 10 Selling Books – November 2019 (via NPD Bookscan)

See Also: Sales of U.S. Constitution Reach All-Time High, The NPD Group Says

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), News, Podcasts, Publishing, Reports, Scholastic