Children’s Book Sales Statistics

• Over 250.76 million children’s books were sold in 2022.
• After having 2 strong years of growth during the pandemic, sales of children’s books declined in 2022 by 9.45%.
• 2020 was the first year with a drop in unit sales of children’s books over the last 5 years.
• Overall, the category sales have grown by 11.37% since 2018, growing faster than the adult segment but slower than the YA segment.
• As of 2022, 32.8% of all books sold in the United States are children’s books.
• During 2020, over 35.5% of all book sales came from the children’s segment, which was the highest mark for the category over the last 5 years.

• Children’s fiction books dominate the category’s sales; as of 2022, over 184 million children’s fiction copies are sold annually.
• The nonfiction segment contributes 67 million copies.
• 1 in 4 books sold in the United States comes from the children’s fiction category.
• Nonfiction had a huge 2020 in the children’s segment when over 10% of all books sold in the US came from this category.
• During the pandemic, children’s nonfiction books were the second-fastest growing category, trailing only YA nonfiction.

Year	Children’s nonfiction sales (million copies)	Children’s fiction sales (million copies)
2022	67.0	184.0
2021	75.1	201.9
2020	77.9	184.2
2019	62.2	167.3
2018	59.5	165.7

• In 2023, the children’s book market in the US is projected to reach $2.62 billion.
• This will be 7th consecutive year in which the children’s book segment recorded revenue growth.
• The category grew by 18.5% over the last 5 years, as it was standing at $2.21 billion in 2018.
• As of 2022, the US children’s book market accounts for 22.8% of the global children’s book revenue.
• The global children’s book market is projected to reach $13.02 billion in 20226.

Year	Children’s book market size ($ billion)	Change
2023*	$2.62	1.55%
2022	$2.58	1.98%
2021	$2.53	2.43%
2020	$2.47	5.11%
2019	$2.35	6.33%
2018	$2.21	0.91%
2017	$2.19

Best-selling children’s books of all time

• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (published in 1943) is the best-selling children’s book of all time, selling over 200 million copies.
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sold over 120 million copies.
• Furthermore, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Adventures of Pinocchio both sold upwards of 80 million copies.
• All titles within J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series feature in the given list.
• Black Beauty is the oldest children’s book on the list, published in 1877.

#	Title	Author	Year published	Page count	Estimated copies sold*
1	The Little Prince	Antoine de Saint-Exupéry	1943	109	200 million
2	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone	J. K. Rowling	1997	223	120 million
3	The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	C. S. Lewis	1950	202	85 million
4	The Adventures of Pinocchio	Carlo Collodi	1881	188	80 million
5	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	J. K. Rowling	1998	251	77 million
6	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	J. K. Rowling	1999	317	65 million
7	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	J. K. Rowling	2000	636	65 million
8	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	J. K. Rowling	2003	766	65 million
9	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	J. K. Rowling	2005	672	65 million
10	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows	J. K. Rowling	2007	607	65 million
11	Heidi	Johanna Spyri	1880	176	50 million
12	Anne of Green Gables	Lucy Maud Montgomery	1908	336	50 million
13	Black Beauty	Anna Sewell	1877	255	50 million
14	Charlotte’s Web	E. B. White	1971	384	50 million
15	The Tale of Peter Rabbit	Beatrix Potter	1902	56	45 million