The audiobook business in the US hit close to $1 billion in sales in 2018, an increase of 24.5% from the previous year.
US audiobook sales totalled $940 million and 44,685 individual audiobook titles were produced, up by just 6% on the previous year, which shows there is still a lot of potential for indie authors and publishers to increase their revenues with audiobook editions.
The most popular audiobook genres in the US are: General Fiction, Mysteries/Thrillers/Suspense, and Science Fiction/Fantasy, but Non-Fiction sales now represent 33% of unit sales in 2018, with General Non-Fiction, History/Biography/Memoir, and Self-Help posting the biggest numbers.
Twenty publishers provided data for the survey, including Audible, Hachette Audio, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster.