New Data From Circana Bookscan: “U.S. Book Market Holds Steady in the First Half of 2025: Results and Highlights”

From Circana Bookscan:

The U.S. print book market remains steady in the first half (1H) of 2025 but has shown signs of slowness in May and June. In the first six months of 2025, print book sales dropped -1% based on units sold, compared to the same period last year. Adult non-fiction is behind more than half (53%) of the drops measured over the past two months and adult fiction accounts for one third (33%). Key factors behind the drops include retail promo events that occurred in 2024 and were not replicated in 2025, along with the normalization of adult fiction sales volume. ​

Adult and YA market

• Adult Non-Fiction is the steepest underperformer in 1H with sales down 3.0M compared to last year. Biography is the hardest hit category, while self-help and Bibles remain bright spots. ​Mel Robbin’s self-help title “The Let Them Theory” is the bestselling book in the first half of the year, with 1.8M print unit sales.
• Adult Fiction, historically the strongest segment of the market over the last few years, is slowing in 1H. Sales are down nearly 1M, versus last year, with fantasy posting the steepest drops. Sarah J. Mass is behind the declines, comping against the breakout success of the ACOTAR series in 2024.​ Excluding Maas, adult fiction sales are showing growth, up 3% or 2.7M units.
• Young Adult unit sales are nearly flat in 1H. Excluding Suzanne Collins’ bestselling Hunger Games prequel, YA sales are down double digits (-10%). ​

Kids’ market

• Juvenile non-fiction sales are flat in 1H and continue to outperform juvenile fiction, where sales are down -1%.​ Activity books are driving the non-fiction growth along with educational subjects like math, language arts, and spelling.
• By age, infant books are the top performing segment with sales up double-digits (11%) in 1H, boosted by licensed properties like Bluey and Ms. Rachel. Middle grade readers remain the most challenged segment where sales are down by 1M units vs. prior year. ​
• The slowness marked by the adult market in the last two months has not impacted the kids’ market in the same way – kids’ book sales were flat in May and June. ​

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