A new report prepared by GfK Entertainment and NielsenIQ BookData and released Tuesday at the London Book Fair showed that fiction sales are growing in global book markets, while nonfiction continues to struggle in most territories.
According to the analysis of 18 international territories, 16 markets showed significant revenue growth in fiction during 2024, with five countries reporting double-digit increases: India (+30.7%), Mexico (+20.7%), Brazil (+16.4%), Spain (+12.0%), and Portugal (+11.4%).
The report highlights a contrasting picture for nonfiction, where sales grew in only six regions, mostly at lower rates than fiction. Unit sales of children's and young adult titles showed mixed results, but managed gains in nine territories.
"Strong-selling novels and continuously rising prices have partially offset the weaker performance of the nonfiction segment," GfK Entertainment and NielsenIQ BookData noted in their joint report.
Overall market performance varied significantly by region. The strongest overall revenue growth was recorded in emerging markets with India (+27.0%), Mexico (+12.6%), and Brazil (+10.4%) leading the way, despite their relatively moderate total volume. Spanish retailers saw substantial growth at 9.8%, while markets in Belgium flat.
More established markets faced challenges, with notable revenue declines in New Zealand (-6.6%), Ireland (-5.3%), and Australia (-3.1%). Even major European markets experienced slight contractions, with France down 0.3% and the UK down 0.6%.
Declines in unit sales were responsible for the revenue drops in France where units fell 2.8% decline, as well as in the U.K. where the number of copies sold was down 1.6% from 2023.
Global inflation was a constant in much of the world with price increases compensating for declining unit sales, though at a more moderate pace than in previous years. In South Africa, an 8.0% rise in average selling price helped grow revenues by 0.7% despite a 6.8% drop in units sold. France saw prices increase by just 2.6% in 2024 (compared to 4.8% in 2023), reaching an average of €12.70 per book. The U.K.'s price growth slowed dramatically from 6.6% to 1.1%, while New Zealand actually saw prices decrease by 3.6%, with an average price of NZ$ 22.09.
The report identified social media—particularly TikTok's BookTok community—as a major driver behind the strong performance of the romance and fantasy/science fiction genres. Authors benefiting from this phenomenon include Colleen Hoover, whose It Ends with Us series has garnered substantial attention on the platform.
Crime and thriller novels also performed well across multiple territories, with Freida McFadden's The Housemaid series ranking in the top five fiction titles in six different regions, including France, Portugal, and Wallonia.
In nonfiction, James Clear's Atomic Habits continued its remarkable run, appearing among the top five bestselling nonfiction books across 10 regions despite being initially published in 2018. Other strong nonfiction categories included religious books, political titles, and children's/young adult books by YouTube personalities.
The analysis was based on physical point-of-sale data from 2024 across multiple territories including Australia, Belgium (Flanders/Wallonia), Brazil, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland (German-speaking and Romandy regions), and the U.K.
