GfK Entertainment and Nielsen BookData have presented their global report for 2024, prior to this year’s London Book Fair.
London/Baden-Baden, 11 March 2025 – GfK Entertainment and NielsenIQ BookData have released their international report for 2024 at the London Book Fair. The data reveals increasing fiction revenues, while non-fiction book sales have been declining in many regions. Romance novels and fantasy titles performed particularly well.es.
Strong-selling novels and continuously rising prices have partially offset the weaker performance of the non-fiction segment. This is one of the key findings from the international book markets report by GfK Entertainment and NielsenIQ BookData for 2024. As the representative data show, 16 out of 18 territories analyzed reported significant revenue growth in fiction. India (+30.7%), Mexico (+20.7%), Brazil (+16.4%), Spain (+12.0%), and Portugal (+11.4%) even saw double-digit increases.
By contrast, non-fiction books experienced growth in only six regions and, even there, mostly at a comparatively lower level. Children’s and young adult books also had a mixed year, though they managed to achieve revenue gains in nine territories.
Revenue growth in almost half of the territories analyzed
Overall, almost half of the territories analyzed enjoyed increases in their revenues compared to the previous year. The strongest growth was seen in India (+27.0%), Mexico (+12.6%), and Brazil (+10.4%); even though these markets still have a relatively moderate total volume. Spanish retailers enjoyed a substantial 9.8% increase, while figures in Wallonia (Belgium) stagnated at +0.0%. More significant declines were recorded in New Zealand (-6.6%), Ireland (-5.3%), and Australia (-3.1%).
Revenues also fell slightly in France (-0.3%) and the UK (-0.6%), the two largest markets in the analysis. A major factor was declining sales: 315 million books were sold in France (-2.8%), while the UK recorded 195 million copies sold (-1.6%).
Prices continue to rise, but at a slower rate
Although the number of sold books fell in many territories, the continued rise in prices had a compensatory effect. In South Africa, for example, an increase in average selling prices of +8.0% helped revenues grow by 0.7%, despite a drop in unit sales by -6.8%. However, in many territories price increases were often less pronounced than in the previous year. While book prices rose by +4.8% in France in 2023, they increased by only +2.6% in 2024, reaching an average price of €12.70. In the UK, the rate dropped significantly from +6.6% to +1.1%, whereas books in New Zealand were -3.6% cheaper year on year (average price of NZ$ 22.09).
Romance and fantasy novels gain popularity thanks to BookTok
The fiction genres with the strongest growth included romance and fantasy/science fiction. Particularly noteworthy are authors such as Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us series), who enjoy a large fanbase within the TikTok community BookTok. Crime and thriller novels also performed well in many regions, with Freida McFadden (The Housemaid series) ranking in the top five fiction books of the year in six different territories, including France, Portugal, and Wallonia.
In the non-fiction sector, James Clear’s Atomic Habits was the undisputed number one. Originally published in 2018, the step-by-step manual is still an absolute favorite and made it into the annual top 5 bestselling non-fiction books in ten regions, including Mexico and Spain. Other non-fiction categories experiencing high demand were religious books, political titles, while children’s/young adult books by YouTube stars also proved popular.
The results, together with the press release and additional information, can be downloaded at www.nielsenbook.co.uk/press-room/ and www.gfk-entertainment.com.
About survey
The analysis is based on physical point-of-sale data from 2024 for the following territories: 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 UK.
Market coverage and integrated genres may vary from country to country.
About GfK Entertainment
GfK Entertainment is a supplier of charts and market research data to the Books, Games, Music, and Video industries. It works closely with the relevant industry bodies and currently carries out market research in over 30 countries. GfK Entertainment is wholly owned by NielsenIQ. For more information, visit: gfk-entertainment.com.
About Nielsen BookData
Nielsen BookData provides a range of services to the book industry internationally, aiding the discovery and purchase, distribution and sales measurement of books. Nielsen BookData is responsible for the ISBN and SAN Agencies for UK & Ireland as well as providing search and discovery services for booksellers and libraries. Its Research services provide retail sales analysis for both print and e-books alongside research from the Books and Consumers Survey. For publishers Nielsen BookData offers a range of services from assigning an ISBN to a book to adding metadata to its database and providing promotional tools to help market books. The company is wholly owned by NIQ. For more information, visit nielsenbook.co.uk.
