Audiobook Statistics: Market Growth, Listener Demographics, and Genre Preferences

Audiobooks have been around for decades, but their popularity has significantly increased in recent years. With the rise of smartphones and on-demand entertainment, more people are turning to audiobooks as a way to enjoy their favorite books while on the go.

Here are some statistics and trends related to audiobook listenership:

Audiobook Sales Statistics

• The global audiobook market size was valued at $5,364.9 million in 2022
• The Global Market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 26.3% from 2023 to 2030
• In 2020, audiobook sales revenue in the United States reached $1.3 billion, and the industry has been growing since 2018.
• In 2021, there was a 16% increase in audiobook sales revenue compared to 2020, with nearly 74,000 new audiobook titles published, a 6% increase over 2020’s output.

Audiobook Services

• Subscription services like Audible and Scribd have become popular choices for audiobook listeners.
• In 2020, Audible had over 500,000 audiobooks in its library and over 2.6 million subscribers. Scribd had over 1 million audiobooks and ebooks in its library and over 1 million subscribers.

Audiobook Listeners

• Audiobook listenership varies by age, 44% of audiobook listeners are under the age of 45, while 56% are over the age of 45.
• 61% of audiobook listeners have a college degree or higher.
• The average audiobook listener is an affluent male aged between 18 and 34 years old, who listens to at least four audiobooks

• 55% of Americans over the age of 12 have listened to an audiobook at least once in their life. This represents an increase of 16% from the previous year.
• 24% of Americans have listened to an audiobook in the past year.
• Audiobooks are not just popular in the United States, but also in other countries. In the United Kingdom, audiobook sales saw a 43% increase in 2020. In Canada, audiobook sales increased by 30%.

Listening Habits

• The majority of audiobook listeners (67%) listen to audiobooks on their smartphones.
• 82% of audiobook listeners listen to their audiobooks at home, while 62% listen while commuting.

Genres

• The most popular genres for audiobook listeners are fiction, followed by mysteries/thrillers/suspense, and then history/biography/memoir.
  • Romance, science fiction, and fantasy are also popular genres for audiobook listeners.
• 63% of audiobook listeners believe that audiobooks should feature narrators of diverse races and ethnicities.

Other Statistics

• Producing an audiobook is a labor-intensive process. It can take up to 40 hours to produce a 10-hour audiobook, and the cost can range from $3,000 to $10,000.

Read our other statistics-related posts:

• Kindle Users and Usage Statistics

References

• Good eReader
• Global Newswire
• Edison Research
• Grandview Research
• Statistica
• The Bookseller