Audiobooks thrive on allowing book consumption at any given moment.
Our Understanding the UK Audiobook Consumer study has now been running for 11 years, and in that time, audiobooks have become a much more established part of the book market, but the consumer outlook continues to evolve, alongside audiobooks themselves continuing to change how readers engage with books. One thing that has remained prominent over the years is that audiobooks allow people to listen to books while doing other things or otherwise unable to read, and of course we can all appreciate the desire to be consuming books at any possible moment!
When and where they’re consuming those books has fluctuated over the years and can vary across different groups, although for the 2026 results, listening in bed/before sleep was the leading circumstance for all broad age groups and across heavy, medium and light listeners (defined as those listening to 11+, 4-10, or 1-3 audiobooks per year, respectively). Things change beyond the top circumstance, however, with heavy listeners understandably having the most varied listening habits, while for light listeners, only two situations garnered more than 20% in the latest year: pre-sleep and at home while not doing anything else. Medium listeners are also quite likely to be listening at home while not doing anything else, while heavy listeners favour listening while doing housework, on long car trips and at home while using their phone for other things ahead of while not doing anything else. You can see how the different circumstances rank below.
Compared to results from 2023, listening while not doing anything else has grown in popularity, although did drop a bit vs 2025. Despite fluctuations in individual years, over the longer-term, all leading listening circumstances have increased, pointing to consumers on the whole listening to audiobooks in a wider variety of situations. Within the top ten for 2026, two situations have steadily grown since 2023: at home while using phone/internet for other things (which overtook long car journeys and on foot compared to 2025) and while on the train, with commuting and bus/tram also above the previous three years.
Listening to audiobooks while using the phone/internet for other things is relatively more common for consumers under 55, with not much difference across male and female listeners, while listening on the train is distinctly more popular among male 18-34s, followed by 35-54s. As shown in the graph below, male consumers under 55 are also the most likely to be listening during their commutes or on long car journeys, while older men lean more into listening before sleep and at home while doing nothing else. Female listeners aged 55+ embrace listening before sleep even more, with nearly half choosing that occasion, followed by around a third listening at home while doing nothing else. Women 55+ are also the most likely group to be listening on foot, closely followed by the youngest female group. A higher proportion of female 18-54s in 2026 were listening while doing housework/chores than while doing nothing, with women in general more likely than men to be multitasking in this way.
We also ask in the study whether consumers are listening more than a year prior, and if they are, the reason behind the increase. In 2026, the top three reasons for listening more were more time to listen, convenience/being able to do other things while listening and audiobooks being easier to carry around. Those reasons are certainly reflected in the leading circumstances and locations, and how those vary across the different groups further highlights the flexibility of audiobooks to fit into consumers’ lives however they choose.
For more UK audiobook insights, the Understanding the UK Audiobook Consumer 2026 report is now available, with options for the full report or a condensed core findings version. Click here to view a preview of the full report, and for more information, please contact infobookresearch@nielseniq.com.
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