List of best-selling books

Cover of The Little Prince

This page provides lists of best-selling single-volume books and book series to date and in any language. "Best-selling" refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Comics and textbooks are not included in this list. The books are listed according to the highest sales estimate as reported in reliable, independent sources. This list is incomplete, since there are many books such as Don Quixote, The Three Musketeers, The Adventures of Pinocchio, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the individual Harry Potter books which are commonly cited as "best-selling books" yet have no reliable sales figures. There is a separate section on this page for books known to have sold over 10 million copies, yet do not have figures for their final sales data.

 

The Ramayan, The Geeta (Gita), The Bible, the Qur'an, The Communist Manifesto and Quotations from Chairman Mao are widely reported as the most-printed and most-distributed books in the world, with hundreds of millions of copies of each of them believed to be in existence. Exact print figures for some such books may also be missing or unreliable since these kinds of books may be produced by many different and unrelated publishers, in some cases over many centuries. All such books have been excluded from this List of best-selling books for these reasons.

More than 100 million copies

Book	Author(s)	Original language	First published	Approximate sales
A Tale of Two Cities	Charles Dickens	English	1859	200 million[1]
The Lord of the Rings	J. R. R. Tolkien	English	1954–1955	150 million[2]
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)	Antoine de Saint-Exupéry	French[Note 1]	1943	140 million[3]
The Hobbit	J. R. R. Tolkien	English	1937	100 million[4]
紅樓夢/红楼梦 (Dream of the Red Chamber)	Cao Xueqin	Chinese	1754[5]–1791	100 million[6]
And Then There Were None	Agatha Christie	English	1939	100 million[7]

Between 50 million and 100 million copies

Book	Author(s)	Original language	First published	Approximate sales
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	C. S. Lewis	English	1950	85 million[8]
She: A History of Adventure	H. Rider Haggard	English	1887	83 million[9]
The Da Vinci Code	Dan Brown	English	2003	80 million[10]
Think and Grow Rich	Napoleon Hill	English	1937	70 million[11]
The Catcher in the Rye	J. D. Salinger	English	1951	65 million[12]
O Alquimista (The Alchemist)	Paulo Coelho	Portuguese	1988	65 million[13]
Steps to Christ	Ellen G. White	English	1892	60 million[14]
Lolita	Vladimir Nabokov	English	1955	50 million[15]
Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre (Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning)	Johanna Spyri	German	1880	50 million[16]
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care	Dr. Benjamin Spock	English	1946	50 million[17]
Anne of Green Gables	Lucy Maud Montgomery	English	1908	50 million[18]
Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions: The autobiography of a horse	Anna Sewell	English	1877	50 million[19]
Il Nome della Rosa (The Name of the Rose)	Umberto Eco	Italian	1980	50 million[20]
The Eagle Has Landed	Jack Higgins	English	1975	50 million[21]
Watership Down	Richard Adams	English	1972	50 million[22]

Between 30 million and 50 million copies

Book	Author(s)	Original language	First published	Approximate sales
The Hite Report	Shere Hite	English	1976	48 million[23]
Charlotte's Web	E.B. White; illustrated by Garth Williams	English	1952	45 million[24]
The Ginger Man	J. P. Donleavy	English	1955	45 million[25]
The Tale of Peter Rabbit	Beatrix Potter	English	1902	45 million[26]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[27]	J. K. Rowling	English	2007	44 million[28]
Jonathan Livingston Seagull	Richard Bach	English	1970	40 million[29]
A Message to Garcia	Elbert Hubbard	English	1899	40 million[17]
Sofies verden (Sophie's World)	Jostein Gaarder	Norwegian	1991	40 million[30]
Angels and Demons	Dan Brown	English	2000	39 million[31]
Как закалялась сталь (Kak zakalyalas' stal'; How the Steel Was Tempered)	Nikolai Ostrovsky	Russian	1932	36.4 million copies in USSR[32]
Война и мир (Voyna i mir; War and Peace)	Leo Tolstoy	Russian	1869	36.0 million copies in USSR[32]
Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un burattino (The Adventures of Pinocchio)	Carlo Collodi	Italian	1881	35 million[33]
You Can Heal Your Life	Louise Hay	English	1984	35 million[34]
Kane and Abel	Jeffrey Archer	English	1979	34 million[35]
In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?	Charles M. Sheldon	English	1896	30 million[17]
To Kill a Mockingbird	Harper Lee	English	1960	30 million[36]
Valley of the Dolls	Jacqueline Susann	English	1966	30 million[17]
Gone with the Wind	Margaret Mitchell	English	1936	30 million[37]
Het Achterhuis (The Diary of a Young Girl, The Diary of Anne Frank)	Anne Frank	Dutch	1947	30 million[38]
Cien años de soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude)	Gabriel García Márquez	Spanish	1967	30 million[39][40]
The Purpose Driven Life	Rick Warren	English	2002	30 million[41]
The Thorn Birds	Colleen McCullough	English	1977	30 million[42]
The Revolt of Mamie Stover	William Bradford Huie	English	1951	30 million[43]
Män som hatar kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)	Stieg Larsson	Swedish	2005	30 million[44]
The Very Hungry Caterpillar	Eric Carle	English	1969	30 million[45]

Between 20 million and 30 million copies[edit source | editbeta]

Book	Author(s)	Original language	First published	Approximate sales
The Late, Great Planet Earth	Hal Lindsey, C. C. Carlson	English	1970	28 million[46]
Молодая гвардия (The Young Guard)	Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeyev	Russian	1945	26 million copies in USSR[32]
Who Moved My Cheese?	Spencer Johnson	English	1998	26 million[47]
The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald	English	1925	25 million[48]
The Wind in the Willows	Kenneth Grahame	English	1908	25 million[49]
Nineteen Eighty-Four	George Orwell	English	1949	25 million[50]
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People	Stephen R. Covey	English	1989	25 million[51]
Поднятая целина (Virgin Soil Upturned)	Mikhail Sholokhov	Russian	1935	24 million copies in USSR[32]
The Celestine Prophecy	James Redfield	English	1993	23 million[52]
The Hunger Games	Suzanne Collins	English	2008	23 million[53]
Дядя Степа (Uncle Styopa)	Sergey Mikhalkov	Russian	1936	21 million copies in USSR[32]
The Godfather	Mario Puzo	English	1969	21 million[54]
Love Story	Erich Segal	English	1970	21 million[55]
狼图腾 (Wolf Totem)	Jiang Rong	Chinese	2004	20 million[56]
The Happy Hooker: My Own Story	Xaviera Hollander	English	1971	20 million[57]
Jaws	Peter Benchley	English	1974	20 million[58]
Love You Forever	Robert Munsch	English	1986	20 million[59]
The Women's Room	Marilyn French	English	1977	20 million[60]
What to Expect When You're Expecting	Arlene Eisenberg and Heidi Murkoff	English	1984	20 million[61]
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	Mark Twain	English	1885	20 million[62]
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾	Sue Townsend	English	1982	20 million[63]
Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft	Thor Heyerdahl	Norwegian	1950	20 million[64]
Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války (The Good Soldier Švejk)	Jaroslav Hašek	Czech	1923	20 million copies in Russia[65]

Between 10 million and 20 million copies[edit source | editbeta]

Book	Author(s)	Original language	First published	Approximate sales
Where the Wild Things Are	Maurice Sendak	English	1963	19 million[66]
The Secret	Rhonda Byrne	English	2006	19 million[67]
Fear of Flying	Erica Jong	English	1973	18 million[68]
The Shack	William P. Young	English	2007	18 million[69]
Goodnight Moon	Margaret Wise Brown	English	1947	16 million[70]
Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story)	Michael Ende	German	1979	16 million[71]
Guess How Much I Love You	Sam McBratney	English	1994	15 million[72]
Shōgun	James Clavell	English	1975	15 million[73]
The Poky Little Puppy	Janette Sebring Lowrey	English	1942	15 million[74]
The Pillars of the Earth	Ken Follett	English	1989	15 million[75]
How to Win Friends and Influence People	Dale Carnegie	English	1936	15 million[76]
Das Parfum (Perfume)	Patrick Süskind	German	1985	15 million[77]
The Grapes of Wrath	John Steinbeck	English	1939	15 million[78]
The Horse Whisperer	Nicholas Evans	English	1995	15 million[79]
La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind)	Carlos Ruiz Zafón	Spanish	2001	15 million[80]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Douglas Adams	English	1979	14 million[81]
Tuesdays with Morrie	Mitch Albom	English	1997	14 million[82]
God's Little Acre	Erskine Caldwell	English	1933	14 million[83]
Va' dove ti porta il cuore (Follow Your Heart)	Susanna Tamaro	Italian	1994	14 million[84]
The Old Man and the Sea	Ernest Hemingway	English	1952	13 million[32]
The Outsiders	S. E. Hinton	English	1967	13 million[85]
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Roald Dahl	English	1964	13 million[86]
Life After Life	Raymond Moody	English	1975	13 million[87]
ノルウェイの森, Noruwei no Mori (Norwegian Wood)	Haruki Murakami	Japanese	1987	12 million[88]
Peyton Place	Grace Metalious	English	1956	12 million[89]
Dune	Frank Herbert	English	1965	12 million[90]
La Peste (The Plague)	Albert Camus	French	1947	12 million[91]
人間失格 (No Longer Human)	Osamu Dazai	Japanese	1948	12 million[92]
The Naked Ape	Desmond Morris	English	1968	12 million[93]
The Bridges of Madison County	Robert James Waller	English	1992	12 million[94]
Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager (Man's Search for Meaning)	Viktor Frankl	German	1946	12 million[95]
Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy)	Dante Alighieri	Italian	1304	11-12 million (during 20th century)[96]
Things Fall Apart	Chinua Achebe	English	1958	11 million[97]
The Prophet	Khalil Gibran	English	1923	11 million[98]
The Exorcist	William Peter Blatty	English	1971	11 million[99]
The Gruffalo	Julia Donaldson	English	1999	10.5 million[100]
Catch-22	Joseph Heller	English	1961	10 million[101]
Eye of the Needle	Ken Follett	English	1978	10 million[102]
A Brief History of Time	Stephen Hawking	English	1988	10 million[103]
The Cat in the Hat	Dr. Seuss	English	1957	10 million[104]
The Lovely Bones	Alice Sebold	English	2002	10 million[105]
Wild Swans	Jung Chang	English	1992	10 million[106]
Santa Evita	Tomás Eloy Martínez	Spanish	1995	10 million[107]
Un di Velt Hot Geshvign (Night)	Elie Wiesel	Yiddish	1958	10 million[108]
The Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini	English	2003	10 million[109]
于丹《论语》心得 (Confucius from the Heart)	Yu Dan	Chinese	2006	10 million[110]
The Total Woman	Marabel Morgan	English	1974	10 million[111]
知価革命 (Knowledge-value Revolution)	Taichi Sakaiya	Japanese	1985	10 million[112]
中国社会主义经济问题研究 (Problems in China's Socialist Economy)	Xue Muqiao	Chinese	1979	10 million[113]
What Color is Your Parachute?	Richard Nelson Bolles	English	1970	10 million[114]
The Dukan Diet	Pierre Dukan	French	2000	10 million[115]
The Joy of Sex	Alex Comfort	English	1972	10 million[116]
The Gospel According to Peanuts	Robert L. Short	English	1965	10 million[117]
A Wrinkle in Time	Madeleine L'Engle	English	1962	10 million[118]
Life of Pi	Yann Martel	English	2001	10 million[119]