Preferred Genres' Top Ranks: A Look at What Grabbs Most Attention
In the dynamic world of publishing, recent statistics from 2025 reveal a clear trend: the most popular, requested, and highest-earning genres are commercial fiction, fantasy, and non-fiction.
Commercial fiction, the most widely consumed genre in the US, captures the attention of 49% of readers, with women making up a significant 55% of its audience[1]. Fiction as a whole showed a surge in sales, particularly during the summer of 2025, indicating a strong consumer demand[2][3].
Within the fiction category, young adult (YA), fantasy, and horror are the top sellers globally. Fantasy, in particular, dominates Goodreads reading stats, with romantasy—a blend of romance and fantasy—gaining rapid popularity. This subgenre, fueled by social media communities like TikTok's #BookTok, has driven a 33% rise in print sales from 2023 to 2024[3][4][5].
Non-fiction remains the second most popular genre in the US, covering a wide range of topics from history and science to self-help and business books. Men consume non-fiction more strongly (58%) than women (37%), but sales and search interest appear more stagnant compared to fiction, suggesting growth might come from niche areas like self-help and memoirs[1][2].
Children's books experienced a notable demand spike around August 2025, likely due to back-to-school shopping periods. However, their overall market volume is less than that of fiction and non-fiction[2].
While the specific genre that makes the most money is not detailed in the passage, it's clear that fiction, particularly youth, fantasy, and romantasy subgenres, lead in popularity and earnings. Commercial fiction dominates US readership, and non-fiction maintains a strong but more stable market presence. Social media influence plays a critical role in emerging trends like romantasy, while seasonal promotions affect demand spikes in both fiction and children’s genres[1][2][3][4][5].
It's also worth noting that adult general fiction comes second in sales, and YA fiction is the first choice of agents. Agents generally work on a commission of 15%. Additionally, children's fiction sells more than three times the number of adult books, and women's fiction is tenth on the list for agent requests. These details provide a more nuanced understanding of the publishing industry's current landscape.
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