Primary source: Audio Publishers Association (APA) Sales Survey (released June 5, 2026). View original report
On June 5, 2026, the Audio Publishers Association announced results from its annual sales survey for calendar year 2025. U.S. audiobook revenue reached $2.43 billion, up 9% from the prior year. Toluna conducted the survey on behalf of the APA.
Publishers reported more than 750,000 active audiobook titles in 2025, a 43% increase from 2024. Title inflation reflects both new releases and backlist conversion to audio, as houses mine catalogs for formats that continue to sell years after print publication.
Listener behavior in 2026
The APA also released its 2026 Consumer Survey, conducted by Edison Research at SSRS in February 2026. Among respondents who identified as audiobook listeners:
- 63% listened to at least one audiobook in the past year
- 35% listened in the past month
- Listeners averaged 3.8 audiobooks in the past year
- 26% consumed four or more titles annually
Edison surveyed 1,706 spoken-word audio listeners aged 18 and older, split between audiobook listeners (1,020 respondents) and spoken-word listeners who had never tried audiobooks (686 respondents).
Growth rate compared with 2024
The 9% revenue gain in 2025 is slower than the 13% jump recorded for 2024 (reported June 2, 2025). That moderation is normal for a maturing format channel. Even at single-digit growth, audio adds hundreds of millions of dollars in industry revenue that barely existed in trade publishing two decades ago.
Catalog and competition
The 43% rise in active titles signals intensifying shelf competition inside apps such as Audible, Libro.fm, and library platforms. Discovery, not production capacity, is increasingly the bottleneck. Publishers with strong series, recognizable narrators, and cross-format marketing tend to hold listener attention even as the catalog swells.
Full survey highlights are posted at audiopub.org. Library Journal infoDOCKET summarized the June 5, 2026 release.
Source: Audio Publishers Association Sales Survey and 2026 Consumer Survey, released June 5, 2026. Analysis by The Idea Logical Company.