Harry Potter audiobooks surpass one billion hours of listening on Audible 

Over one billion hours of Harry Potter stories have now been listened to on Audible since the audiobooks were first made available on the platform seven years ago.

The one billion listening hours figure comes from measured consumption of the Harry Potter books one to seven in all Audible marketplaces globally, in English, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Latin American Spanish and Castilian Spanish. One billion hours is the equivalent of 1.14 million years. It takes 117 hours to listen uninterrupted to the series of seven books.

The original narrations of the stories by Jim Dale (in the North American version) and Stephen Fry (in the UK and rest of the world in English language), were first launched on Audible in December 2015.

Diana Dapito, head of consumer content at Audible, said: “The evergreen popularity and insatiable appetite for the Harry Potter audiobooks on Audible is both staggering and, at once, not at all surprising. These unparalleled, beloved stories transport and engage listeners through immersive, powerful audio magic. We are honoured to be able to bring Harry Potter to listeners around the globe through our collaboration with Pottermore.”

Pottermore Publishing is the global digital publisher of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series, as well as other audiobooks and e-books from the Wizarding World.

Jennie McCann, m.d of Pottermore Publishing, added: “It continues to astound and delight us that listeners of all kinds have made a permanent place in their lives for these audio stories. The original audiobook narrations are cherished versions of these incredible stories, so we took great care when remastering them from CD to deliver the best sound quality and experience possible for the new generation of listeners.

“We’re grateful to Audible for taking these iconic recordings and making them brilliantly accessible, and join with them in celebrating this extraordinary and unprecedented milestone.”

Over the past seven years, Pottermore Publishing has also worked with Audible to create new Harry Potter audiobooks in Latin-American and Castilian Spanish, Japanese and Italian. The collaboration has produced audio releases of other Wizarding World titles including The Tales of Beedle the Bard narrated by Jude Law, Bonnie Wright, and Noma Dumezweni; Harry Potter: A History of Magic performed by Natalie Dormer; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them performed by Eddie Redmayne; and more.