Emeka Nweze
J.K Rowling was ranked as the highest paid author in the world in 2019, with an estimated income of $92 million. Her acclaimed Harry Potter franchise continues to bring in hundreds of millions and the book series alone is estimated to have sold over 500 copies worldwide.
No other book series has sold such amount, however, Goosebumps which sits as the number two best selling book series in the world has sold an incredible 400 million copies.
See the complete top 10 below.
1. Harry Potter
Estimated sales – 500 million
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was released on 26 June 1997,and since then the series have found immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide with translations into eighty languages. As of February 2018, the books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history.
2. Goosebumps
Estimated sales – 400 million
Goosebumps is a series of children’s horror fiction novels by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing. The stories follow child characters, who find themselves in scary situations, usually involving monsters and other supernatural elements. Since the release of its first novel, Welcome to Dead House, in July 1992, the series has sold over 400 million books worldwide in thirty-two languages. Goosebumps has spawned a television series and merchandise, as well as a series of feature films.
3. Perry Mason
Estimated sales – 300 million
Perry Mason is an American fictional character, a criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which involve a client’s murder trial. The Perry Mason series ranks third in the top ten best selling book series.
4. Berenstain Bears
Estimated sales – 260 million
The Berenstain Bears is a children’s literature franchise created by Stan and Jan Berenstain and continued by their son, Mike Berenstain. The books feature a family of anthropomorphic grizzly bears who generally learn a moral or safety-related lesson in the course of each story. Since the first book in the series was released in 1962, over 300 titles have been released with approximately 260 million copies in 23 languages sold.
5. Choose Your Own Adventure
Estimated sales – 250 million
Choose Your Own Adventure, or Secret Path Books is a series of children’s gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character’s actions and the plot’s outcome. Currently, there have been 184 books in the series.
6. Sweet Valley High
Estimated sales – 250 million
Sweet Valley High is a series of young adult novels that chronicle the lives of identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, who live in the fictional Sweet Valley, California. The series began in 1983, and soon gained popularity and spawned several spin-off series, including Sweet Valley Senior Year and Sweet Valley University, as well as a television adaptation.concluded The series ended twenty years after the first publication with a total of 181 books.
7. Noddy
Estimated sales – 200 million
Noddy is a fictional character created by English children’s author Enid Blyton, originally published between 1949 and 1963.The Noddy character appeared in 24 original titles.
8. Nancy Drew
Estimated sales – 200 million
Nancy Drew is a fictional amateur detective, created by publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series. The character first appeared in 1930. The Nancy Drew books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The character is often regarded as a cultural icon and is said to have influenced the likes of US Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connorformer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton among others.
9. The Railway Series
Estimated cost – 200 million
The Railway Series is a set of British story books about a railway system located on the fictional Island of Sodor. Stories in the series were inspired by actual real-life events. The first book was published in 1945 and consists of 42 books in total.
10. San-Antonio book series
Estimated cost – 200 million
The San-Antonio book series is the most popular work of Frédéric Dard, one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the 20th century who wrote more than three hundred novels, plays and screenplays.The San-Antonio series consists of 173 installments which have sold over 200 million copies worldwide.
