Rakuten Kobo has released information about the book reading and listening habits of Australians who use Kobo ereaders and or the Kobo app.
Australians are increasingly interested in learning about artificial intelligence, with sales of related books up 152% year-over-year.
Romance continues to reign supreme as the most popular genre, followed by biography and autobiography, mystery, and business and economics.
Night owls rejoice! 11pm is the most popular time for reading nationwide, while early birds saw the biggest growth in reading at 5am (up 33%).
Travel was the genre with the highest sales growth, increasing by over 81% year-over-year.
Australians are embracing audiobooks, with listening time up 27% since 2022.
This increase could be linked to Kobo adding Audiobooks to it’s Kobo Plus subscription service a few months ago. Australian Kobo Plus subscribers can access more than 1.5 million ebooks and over 150,000 audiobooks.
The “Taylor Swift Effect” translated to a massive spike in sales of ebooks and audiobooks related to the pop star.
BookTok influencers are driving sales for authors, with fantasy and romance titles dominating the platform.
TV and movie adaptations are introducing a new generation of readers to classic books.
Australians are expanding their reading horizons, with genres like antiques and collectibles seeing increased interest.
Australia’s bestselling books of 2023 on the Kobo app and ereaders were:
Top 10 ebooks:
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
- Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, Lucinda Riley
- Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros
- Spare, Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
- Yellowface, Rebecca F Kuang
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
- It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover
- The Bookbinder of Jericho, Pip Williams
- Verity, Colleen Hoover
- The Last Devil To Die, Richard Osman
Top 10 audiobooks:
- Spare, Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
- Atomic Habits, James Clear
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
- Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey
- Did I Ever Tell You This?, Sam Neill
- The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
- The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk
- The Bookbinder of Jericho, Pip Williams
- The Last Devil To Die, Richard Osman
- Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry
