Best-selling Book Series Of All Time

As of 2023, the best-selling book series of all time is Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling, with 600 million copies sold since 1997.
On average this amounts to 23.08 million copies of the Harry Potter series sold per year since its initial publication.
Over the course of the 7 book series, 85.71 million copies of each book were sold on average.
The second best-selling book series of all time is Chicken Soup for the Soul, originally by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, with 500 million copies sold.
On average this amounts to 16.67 million copies of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series sold per year since its initial publication.
The third best-selling book selling book series is Goosebumps by R. L. Stine, with 400 million copies sold since 1992.
On average this amounts to 12.90 million copies of the Goosebumps series sold per year since its initial publication.
Children’s books have the highest representation (9 titles) amongst the top 20 best-selling book series.
This is followed by Young Adult (5 titles) and Mystery/Thriller (4 titles).
The top 20 best-selling book series have initial publication years that range from 1930 to 2011.
However, 45% of the titles in the list were first published from 1990 onwards.

Best-selling book series by number of copies sold

The top 20 best-selling book series titles by total copies sold include the following genres:
- Children’s (9 titles)
- Young Adult (5 titles)
- Mystery/Thriller (4 titles)
- Self-Help (1 title)
- Erotic (1 title)
Children’s book series dominate the best-selling book series list, making up 45% of the top 20 titles.
Young Adult titles make up 25% of the top 20 titles.
Mystery/Thriller titles make up 20% of the top 20 titles.
The oldest title in the list is Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene (a collective pseudonym), which was first published in 1930.
The newest title in the list is Fifty Shades by E. L. James, which was first published in 2011.
By decade, the 90’s (4 titles) and the 00’s (4 titles) had the greatest representation in the list.

#	Initial year published	Series title	Original author(s)	Genre	Copies sold
1	1997	Harry Potter	J. K. Rowling	Young Adult	600 million
2	1993	Chicken Soup for the Soul	Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen	Self-Help	500 million
3	1992	Goosebumps	R. L. Stine	Young Adult	400 million
4	1933	Perry Mason	Erle Stanley Gardner	Mystery/Thriller	300 million
–	1962	Berenstain Bears	Stan and Jan Berenstain	Children’s	300 million
6	2007	Diary of a Wimpy Kid	Jeff Kinney	Children’s	275 million
7	1979	Choose Your Own Adventure	Various authors	Children’s	270 million
8	1983	Sweet Valley High	Francine Pascal and ghostwriters	Young Adult	250 million
–	1971	Mr. Men	Roger Hargreaves	Children’s	250 million
10	2000	Robert Langdon	Dan Brown	Mystery/Thriller	200 million
–	1949	Noddy	Enid Blyton	Children’s	200 million
–	1945	The Railway Series	Rev. W. Awdry, Christopher Awdry	Children’s	200 million
–	1930	Nancy Drew	Carolyn Keene (collective pseudonym)	Mystery/Thriller	200 million
–	1975	Little Critter	Mercer Mayer	Children’s	200 million
–	1949	San-Antonio	Frédéric Dard	Mystery/Thriller	200 million
16	1997	Geronimo Stilton	Elisabetta Dami	Children’s	180 million
–	2005	Percy Jackson & The Olympians	Rick Riordan	Young Adult	180 million
18	1986	The Baby-Sitters Club	Ann Martin	Children’s	176 million
19	2011	Fifty Shades	E. L. James	Erotic	165 million
20	2005	Twilight	Stephenie Meyer	Young Adult	160 million

(Excludes the Star Wars and American Girl book series that cross over with comics and magazines)

A book series is a collection of books that can be grouped together based on certain characteristics, for example, a storyline that spans multiple books.
Each book series can be organized/ordered in different ways based on the desires of an author or publisher.

According to the list of best-selling book series of all time, Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is the most popular book series.
As of 2023, the series has sold over 600 million copies.

According to the list of best-selling book series of all time, Perry Mason by Erle Stanley Gardner is the most popular mystery book series.
As of 2023, the series has sold over 300 million copies.