Image – Getty: Yuliia Kaveshnikova
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
General Fiction Holds the Largest Genre Usership
Always helpful in observing the evolving strength of the audiobook market in the United States, the Audio Publishers Association (APA), led by executive director Michele Cobb, has released its annual surveys on sales and trends in 2024—cheering many audiobook fans with a 13-percent gain over 2023.
Digital audiobooks—the “born again” format that has given audiobooks new life after dark decades of unwieldy tape cassettes and CDs—are the clear vehicle of success here: the association’s information indicates that in 2024, digital audio accounted for 99 percent of 2024’s US audiobook revenues, growing year-over-year by 14 percent.
Those points are from the APA’s Sales Survey, which was conducted by Toluna.
The APA’s 2025 Consumer Survey, conducted again by Edison Research, reports that 51 percent of Americans responding who are aged 18 and older—representing an estimated 134 million people—told researchers that they have listened to an audiobook.
It’s heartening to read of “a notable increase in interest among non-listeners” in which 38 percent say they’re “interested” in audiobooks, up from 32 percent last year, with the number of those saying they’re “very interested” nearly doubling from 10 percent to 18 percent.
While the association reports that piracy “continues to be a concern and the Audio Publishers Association is actively working on this issue,” the program does have data from Edison indicating that 35 percent of surveyed self-identified listeners say they’ve listened to an audiobook on YouTube, a figure that’s up from 27 percent in 2023. “One of the top reasons (76 percent) cited by respondents for using YouTube was cited as no cost for the products, which are largely pirated.”
Additional points from the new survey work:
- A growing share of listeners cite accessibility as a key factor in audiobook consumption: 72 percent say it’s important that audiobooks are available on their preferred listening platform and 63 percent say they value access through their library apps;
- General fiction accounts for the largest share of revenue by genre and grew by 16 percent over 2023 revenue;
- Science fiction / fantasy, romance, and general nonfiction make up the remaining top genres by revenue;
- The largest year-on-year increases in genre sales were seen in romance (up 30 percent), children’s books and young adult (up 26 percent), and science fiction /fantasy (up 21 percent); and
- The consumption and number of artificially narrated audiobooks has increased, although willingness to try them dropped year-over-year, from 77 percent in 2023 to 70 percent in 2025.
This is the amount of survey information made available to the press, to be reported. The full results of both surveys are reserved for members of the Audo Publishers Association.
In February of this year, Edison Research conducted an online survey of 1,700 US adults aged 18+ on behalf of the Audio Publishers Association. Results were weighted to reflect the national audience composition reported in the Infinite Dial® 2025, conducted by Edison Research, Audacy, Cumulus Media, and SiriusXM Media.
More from Publishing Perspectives on audiobooks is here, more on the Audio Publishers Association is here, more on industry statistics is here, more on the United States’ market is here, and more on digital publishing in general is here.