Methodology and Source: Counts are drawn from the latest publisher reports, scholarly estimates, and Wikipedia’s List of best-selling books (accessed May 2025). Totals for religious and political works reflect all printed or distributed copies, including free ones, rather than retail sales. Figures are approximate, rounded to the nearest 10 million (100 million for the Bible).

The chart was rendered using using the data visualisation platform PlotSet.

Posted by Eeagli

42 comments

  2. Harry Potter was such a phenomenon that we millennials got to grow up with. Kids will probably never get to experience something like that again.

  4. Hahaha oh man … I can’t wait to tell my Mormon friends that the Lord of the Rings has sold almost as many copies as the Book of Mormon.

  7. “selling” is misleading.

    Take the top three from that list.

  8. Why does the Quran say 3,500 and not 3.5 billion to bring it in line with the other numbers. Or more accurately, why aren’t all the other numbers formatted like the Quran since the chart is meant to be in millions?

  9. This list is completely wrong. Euclid’s Elements is the second most published, translated, and distributed book in history and it didn’t even make the list.

  10. For just a second I got excited that Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s musical “Book of Mormon” was one of the best selling books in history. And then I remembered that it’s based on an actual insane religion that actually exists. Sigh

  11. It was honestly better the first time when you had Harry Potter as religious

  12. is it really “selling” when bibles are place din hotels, motels, given to people who don’t want them,etc..etc…etc..

  13. Funny that there’s only one nonfiction book on here. At least it’s presumed that Little Red Book isn’t all made up

  14. If we are looking at the whole series of books (like Harry Potter) wouldn’t Guiness World Records Book be the one that sold most?

  15. It seems unfair to use a series of books for Harry Potter, instead of counting the individual books.

    Also, if you are going to include book series, then your list is wrong, because the *Goosebumps* series has sold 400 million according to this:

    [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books#List_of_best-selling_book_series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books#List_of_best-selling_book_series)

    And there are other series listed there that sold more than some of the books you have on your list.

    So I think you should revise the list, and consider the individual books in the Harry Potter series, and not take them all together. If you do, I don’t think Harry Potter will appear on the list at all, of the 10 biggest selling books.

  16. A tale of 2 cities is one of the few books I put down.

  17. Where does the IKEA catalog sit in this chart?

  20. > including free ones, rather than retail sales

    Web serials would like a word with your data sources.

  21. Why the Quran written as 3,500 when little red book is written as 1.1 billion?

  22. The figure for LOTR is bogus. That 150 million figure dates back to at least 2007 so would be much higher now.

  23. Any post that uses superlatives such as “best”, “most”, “biggest”, “smallest” to describe the stat of interest especially in “all of history” context can neither be true nor accurate. Just a fun insight into what kind of biases the OP has or researchers have (that have contributed to the data source)!

  26. So surprised the Book of Mormon is actually on the list that’s so funny

  28. Idk don’t think it’s fair when one book is a thousand years and another 25 years ago.

  31. Where is my GOAT? Where is One Piece? (I know it’s not a book technically.)

  32. This dude reposted his OWN content to avoid getting flamed cuz the content sucks.

  33. What I get from this is that Don Quijote is the best SELLING BOOK of all time

  36. Low integrity post with a lie for a headline.

    A book needs to be bought to be counted as sold.

  38. Would love to see a comparison with most read copies. I would be surprised if any of the religious books would make the top 100

  40. The Communist Manifesto is estimated to have sold a staggering 500 million copies worldwide.

  42. I was under the impression the Tao Te Ching was the 2nd most printed book behind the Bible, is that not the case? Or is the methodology distinguishing quantity of prints and number sold?

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