Romance Novel Sales Statistics

• Romance novels generate over $1.44 billion in revenue, making romance the highest-earning genre of fiction.
• Romance reached over 39 million printed units sold over the last 12 months as of May 2023.
• Romance sales grew by 52% compared to the 12 months ending May 2022, and this has been the third consecutive year with positive growth in romance novel sales in printed format.
• Sales of romance novels more than doubled compared to 2021 figures (12 months ending May 2021).
• Over 33% of books sold in mass-market paperback format were romance novels.

Year (12 months ending May)	Romance print copies sold (in millions)	Growth
2023	39	52.00%
2022	26	36.00%
2021	19	11.76%
2020	17	-5.56%
2019	18	-10.00%
2018	20	-13.04%
2017	23

• Romance was the fastest-growing genre of fiction over this period, contributing to 66% of adult fiction growth in 2022.
• However, e-book romance novel sales declined by 16% over the same period.
• Ebook sales account for 60% of total romance unit sales.
• Since July 2020, the rolling 12-month growth of romance novel sales was never under 0, reaching a 2-year high of 4.7% in July 2022.
• According to Penguin Random House, romance book sales had increased by more than 50% in 2021.
• Total unit sales for romance novels reached 47 million in 2021, including print and digital formats.
• This is a 24% increase compared to 2020, which recorded 37.9 million sold units.
• During 2021, romance sales accounted for 18% of total adult fiction sales, making romance the second highest-selling fiction category.
• Romance novel sales grew by 49% in 2021 compared to 2020 in the UK.

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Romance market share by authors (2023)

• Collen Hoover dominates the romance market, accounting for over 48% of the print unit sales for the category as of 2023.
• Over the last 12 months, sales of Collen Hoover’s books increased by 316%.
• Another major figure in the romance world in 2023 is Emily Henry, responsible for 32% of all romance novel sales in print formats as of 2023.
• Collen Hoover and Emily Henry account for 80% of total unit sales of romance books at the moment.
• Lucy Score and Ana Huang increased the sales of their novels by 23x and 11x, respectively, making it on the top 4 list of authors with the biggest market share when it comes to romance novels.

Author	Share of total romance sales	12-month growth
Collen Hoover	48%	316%
Emily Henry	32%	45%
Lucy Score	4%	2312%
Ana Huang	3%	1128%
Nicholas Sparks	2%	-14%
Julia Quinn	2%	-38%
Christina Lauren	2%	54%
Nora Roberts	2%	-29%
Ali Hazelwood	2%	71%
Debbie Macomber	2%	-26%

What are the best-selling romance novels of all time?

• Fifty Shades of Gray (2011-2021) by E. L. James is the best-selling romance novel series of all time, reaching over 150 million copies sold.
• The first title in the series is also known to be present in the list of all time audiobook best-sellers.
• The Thorn Birds (1996) by Colleen McCullough has sold over 33 million copies.
• Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Gone with the Wind have each sold over 30 million copies.
• Pride and Prejudice is also America’s favorite book, according to WordsRated’s survey of over 78,000 Americans.

#	Title (Year)	Author	Copies sold*
1	Fifty Shades of Grey, Series (2011-2021)	E. L. James	150 million
2	The Thorn Birds (1996)	Colleen McCullough	33 million
3	Pride and Prejudice (1813)	Jane Austen	30 million
4	Gone with the Wind (1936)	Margaret Mitchell	30 million
5	Outlander (1991)	Diana Gabaldon	25 million
6	Love Story (1970)	Erich Segal	21 million
7	Fear of Flying (1973)	Erica Jong	20 million
8	Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996)	Helen Fielding	10 million
9	The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003)	Audrey Niffenegger	2.5 million
10	Jane Eyre (1847)	Charlotte Brontë	2 million

Romance authors’ diversity

• Authors’ diversity in romance novels is very unbalanced:
  • 92.2% of romance novels published in 2021 were written by white authors.
  • 7.8% of romance novels published in 2021 were written by BIPOC authors.
• Romance novel readership is also dominantly white:
  • 73% of romance readers are white/caucasian
  • 12% are African-American
  • 7% are Latino/Hispanic
  • 4% are Asian/Asian American

Who reads romance novels?

• 82% of romance readers are women, and 18% are men.
• 45% of romance readers have a college degree.
• The average romance reader is 42 years old.
• Romance readers are getting younger:
  • 10 years ago, the main romance-reading group was women ages 35 to 54.
  • Today, the main romance-reading group is women ages 18 to 54.
  • 44% of readers purchasing a romance book are ages 18 to 44.
• 70% of romance readers discover the genre between ages 11 and 18.
• 35% of romance readers have been fans of the genre for more than 20 years.
• 59% of romance readers are married or living with their partner.

Reading habits of romance novels readers

Publishers print a high number of Romance titles annually as novels within the genre have short lifespans. Due to this, 50% of the most competitive Kindle genres are related to Romance.

• 29% of romance readers usually carry a romance novel with them.
• Romance readers usually finish a novel within 7 days.
• 46.4% of romance readers read at least one novel per week.
• 78.3% of romance readers read more than one novel per month.