BookScan estimates 2020 full-year print market up 5.5%

Nielsen BookScan has estimated the full-year print market for 2020 at 202 million books sold for £1.76bn, a 5.2% rise in volume and a 5.5% increase in value compared to 2019.

Using its Books and Consumers survey data to fill the 17-week gap in its data left by the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, and combining it with historical data, Nielsen has stated that its estimates are "very accurate".

This would be the first time the annual print volume has topped 200 million books sold since 2012, and would represent the highest annual value since 2009 and the biggest volume rise since 2007. It would also make 2020 the sixth consecutive year of value growth for print, and its third in volume terms.

Charlie Mackesy's The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse (Ebury) was the bestselling title of the year, becoming the first non-fiction title to top an annual chart outside of its publication year. The illustrated title, released in October 2019, galloped into the Hardback Non-Fiction top spot 19 times across last year, including eight weeks across the first national lockdown last spring.

In 2019 BookScan recorded the print market up 2.4% in value and 0.4% in volume.

Stephen Lotinga, chief executive of the Publishers Association, commented on the rise: "It’s heartening to see that print sales increased last year, despite the significant challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic. Books are a vital source of entertainment, comfort and education and these things have been particularly necessary recently. The rise in print sales is also testament to the brilliant books that publishers have released in the past year. It is this expertise and creativity that will ensure the industry’s ongoing success in these difficult times."