- Global revenue from magazines and newspapers (print and digital) totalled $165.80 billion as of 2023.
- Of this, print revenues made up $127.20 billion (76.72%). This is expected to drop 13.05% to $110.60 billion by 2027.
- However, digital revenues made up $38.60 billion (23.28%). This is expected to grow 11.37% to $42.99 billion by 2027.
- Between 2019 and 2022, total audiences for magazine companies have decreased by 38.56%.
- Audiences for print/digital formats have decreased by 37.88%.
- Audiences for mobile web formats have decreased by 28.33%.
- As of 2021, the total number of adults that read magazines was 222.2 million across both print and digital.
- This has increased by 5.46% since 2012’s 210.7 million readers.
- The top 50 US magazines had a total of 123.67 million subscriptions as of 2021.
- Of this figure, subscriptions to print made up 94.08%.
US magazine audiences by format
- As of 2022, the most popular audience format for US magazines was mobile web (47.72%).
- The mobile web format decreased by 3.51% over the previous year.
- The second-most popular format was print/digital (42.28%)
- The print/digital format decreased by 3.12% over the previous year.
- Web and video formats combined made up 10.00%.
Year | Mobile web | Print/Digital | Web | Video | Total |
2022 | 488.69 (47.72%) | 433.00 (42.28%) | 80.63 (7.87%) | 21.82 (2.13%) | 1,024.14 |
2021 | 506.46 (44.92%) | 446.94 (39.64%) | 103.20 (9.15%) | 70.83 (6.28%) | 1,127.43 |
2020 | 577.83 (40.61%) | 540.14 (37.96%) | 147.21 (10.35%) | 157.61 (11.08%) | 1,422.79 |
2019 | 663.33 (39.80%) | 697.02 (41.82%) | 143.57 (8.61%) | 162.94 (9.78%) | 1,666.86 |
A graph is given below to show US magazine audiences by format:

Highest circulated US magazines
- As of 2022, AARP The Magazine (1st) had the highest average circulation at 22.68 million.
- Over the period, its circulation has decreased by 6.36%.
- AARP Bulletin (2nd) had an average circulation of 22.56 million.
- Over the period, its circulation has decreased by 3.55%.
- Costco Connection (3rd) had an average circulation of 15.68 million.
# | Publication | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Change |
1 | AARP The Magazine | 24.22 | 23.71 | 23.30 | 22.89 | 22.68 | – 6.36% |
2 | AARP Bulletin | 23.39 | 23.12 | 22.54 | 22.57 | 22.56 | – 3.55% |
3 | Costco Connection | 13.07 | 14.12 | 14.90 | 15.89 | 15.68 | + 19.97% |
4 | American Mainstreet | 9.40 | 9.33 | 10.03 | 10.11 | 10.11 | + 7.55% |
5 | Better Homes and Gardens | 7.63 | 7.65 | 7.62 | 7.61 | 4.21 | – 44.82% |
A graph is given below to show the highest circulated US magazines:

Subscriptions of top 50 US magazines
- As of 2021, the top 50 US magazines had a total of 123.67 million subscriptions.
- Of this figure, print subscriptions made up 94.08%.
- Over the period, print subscriptions decreased by 6.99%.
- Digital subscriptions made up 5.92%.
- Over the period, digital subscriptions increased by 69.84%.
Year | Print subscriptions | Change | Digital subscriptions | Change |
2021 | 116.35 million | – 3.42% | 7.32 million | + 30.25% |
2020 | 120.47 million | – 3.70% | 5.62 million | + 30.39% |
2019 | 125.10 million | 4.31 million |
A graph is given below to show subscriptions of top 50 US magazines by type:

Magazine sales in Europe
- In Western Europe, consumer magazine print circulation revenues decreased from $17.4 billion (2011) to $14 billion (2016).
- In the UK, nearly a third of adults read print magazines at least once a week as of 2017.
- However, only 19% read digital magazines at least once a week.
- In terms of UK print magazine revenues, weekly TV magazines made up the largest share at 26.9%.
- In Spain, magazine reading penetration has dropped to 22% as of 2021 from over 50% in 2013.
- In France, daily average time spent reading magazines per capita dropped from 25 minutes (2010) to 23.8 minutes (2016).
- In Germany, between 2013 and 2016 the number of people that stated they read magazines multiple times per week decreased by more than 4 million.
Magazine sales statistics FAQ
How do magazine companies look to increase sales?
- Although there are many factors that can influence sales figures, there are some common techniques that magazine companies to increase sales:
- Improvement of cover designs to encourage more consumers to purchase magazines off-the-shelf.
- Expansion of magazines into different geographic regions to target a larger target audience.
- Development of digital, including social media, video, mobile and web adaptations.
- Incentives such as coupons, gifts and reduced subscription prices.