New Data From the Association of American Publishers (AAP): Publishing Revenues Totaled $33.4 Billion for Calendar Year 2025

From AAP:

Today, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) released the StatShot Annual report covering the calendar year 2025, estimating that the U.S. publishing industry generated $33.4 billion in aggregate publishing revenue for books and course materials across print and digital formats. U.S. Publishing revenue is up 2.5% as compared to $32.5 billion in revenue in 2024, and up 16.1% when comparing 2021 to 2025.

“This year’s report reflects a healthy and agile publishing industry,” commented Syreeta Swann, Chief Operating Officer, Association of American Publishers. “Print formats continue to dominate Trade publishing, accounting for 76.3% of Trade revenue, while Digital Audio and digital course materials remain strong.”

Calendar Year 2025 StatShot Annual Report Highlights:

During 2025, Trade (consumer books) revenue increased by 2.7% to an estimated $21.7 billion in 2025.

Within Trade:

• • Religious Presses had the largest gain, up 9.3% to $2.2 billion, continuing an upward trend.
  • Adult Fiction grew 3.9% to $7.1 billion.
  • Adult Non-Fiction increased 1.3% to $6.0 billion.
  • Children’s & Young Adult Fiction increased 0.9% to $5.4 billion.
  • Children’s & Young Adult Non-Fiction grew 0.3% to $1.0 billion.
  • Higher Education Course Materials increased by 8.5% to $4.7 billion.
  • PreK-12 Instructional Materials decreased 2.5% to $5.2 billion.
  • Professional & Scholarly (excluding Journals) decreased 1.2% to $1.3 billion.
  • University Presses increased 4.9% to $368 million.

Print

Overall, print formats (Hardback, Paperback, Mass Market, and Special Bindings) accounted for 50.6% of publishers’ revenue. During the year, revenue from Hardbacks climbed 3.9% to $8.2 billion, while Paperbacks increased 2.1% to $8.0 billion.

Within Trade, the Hardback and Paperback formats together accounted for nearly three-quarters of publisher’s revenue (73.1%), maintaining their position as the most popular formats with $8.0 billion and $7.8 billion in revenue, respectively. Year over year, Hardbacks increased 3.9% and Paperbacks increased 2.0%.

Digital

In the industry overall, digital formats (Digital Audio and eBooks) accounted for 14.2% of all revenue in 2025, representing a revenue increase of 4.3% from 2024. Digital Audio increased 5.3% to $2.5 billion in 2025, and eBooks increased 3.2% to $2.2 billion. 

Within Trade, digital formats accounted for 21.5% of overall revenue in 2025, returning a revenue increase of 4.2% from the previous year. Digital Audio revenue for Trade increased 5.3% while eBooks increased 3.0% in 2025.

Channels

The report provides data for a variety of channels, with publisher sales via Online Retail growing 3.1% on a year-over-year basis and comprising the largest category at $12.3 billion. During the year, Physical Retail revenue increased 7.2% to $6.7 billion. Intermediary channel revenue declined 0.6% to $4.4 billion compared to 2024.

Methodology

The Calendar Year 2025 StatShot Annual report is the independent work of Industry Insights, Inc., an expert research and data analytics firm. The report offers a valuable financial overview of the book publishing industry by reporting estimated and aggregated revenue and reported unit sales. Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding.

For the calendar year 2025 report, Industry Insights conducted a comprehensive, multistep analysis using government statistics, publisher-reported data, historical AAP research, independent market benchmarks, and relevant industry research. Primary inputs included data from the U.S. Census Bureau, submissions from publishers participating in StatShot Annual, and historical StatShot Monthly and StatShot Annual results from AAP. Additional reference points included Bowker’s Books In Print database, Circana BookScan and Circana PubTrack Digital market measurement services, research concerning independent and self-publishing activity, public-company financial filings, and other relevant publishing-market information.

All participants were asked to report on all five years covered by this report. This edition accounts for both participation changes and restatements for each year included.

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), Data Files, News, Publishing, Reports