This week, following on from The Bookseller’s charts story on the performance of the book market in the first quarter of 2025, BookTok creators selected the books they believe have been the top performing titles on the platform so far this year.
The Bookseller’s Alex Call reported that Rebecca Yarros’ Onyx Storm (Piatkus) and Suzanne Collins’ Sunrise on the Reaping (Scholastic) are the two biggest books of the first quarter, selling upwards of 100,000 copies each through Nielsen BookScan. The BookTok creators also named both titles in their top three.
Collins’ second prequel to the Hunger Games series “is definitely the top one by a landslide”, said Brittany (@whatbritreads; 58,400 followers). “It seemed to unite the entire BookTok community for weeks.” Rhona (@bowiesbooks; 18,200 followers) added that “the success of the book shows the impact that books have on people, with many readers keen to relive the series from their adolescence that left such a mark”.
For Suraka (@surakajanebooks; 16,600 followers), the publication of Sunrise on the Reaping was “always going to be a major moment, but I couldn’t believe how quickly it dominated content”. Brittany similarly “massively underestimated just how big the response would be”. She continued: “I think deep down the Hunger Games still feels like the tiny series I read when I was 14 that nobody I knew had read, and you forgot the worldwide massive phenomena that it ended up being.” Collins is a “master with a well-deserved cult following”, said Evie (@eviemaddaloni; 3809 followers). “There was no way Sunrise on the Reaping was not going to be an instant number one.”
Yarros’ Onyx Storm, the third in the Empryean series, is currently the bestselling book of 2025 so far, selling more than 226,000 copies through Nielsen BookScan. The popularity of the series has made the romantasy book a hit, agreed Emily (@emilymiahreads; 87,600 followers) and Suraka. “It built on the momentum of Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, so I feel like it was always going to be huge,” said the latter. The hashtag – #onyxstorm – has been used in more than 259,000 posts on TikTok at the time of writing.
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Ali Hazelwood’s Deep End (Little, Brown) also received nods from Brittany and Rhona. The sports romance novel marked a departure from Hazelwood’s STEM romances, noted Rhona, and “sparked a lot of conversation when it came out earlier this year, with many talking about media literacy and the importance of clarity around the book’s intended audience when it comes to promotion”. It “feels the most popular romance release of the year so far,” said Brittany. Hazelwood’s “success [on the app] is pretty much a given at the point, regardless of what the book is about […] If it’s got her name on it, it’s an auto-buy for me because she has such a reliably consistent list of titles”.
Tracy Deonn’s Oathbound (Simon & Schuster), the next book in the Legendborn Cycle, was picked by Brittany and John-Paul (@jpreads6; 20,300 followers). “Legendborn was such a beloved and viral series in 2020 when it began, and its fanbase have sat patiently waiting for new instalments that get the hype and praise they deserve every single time,” said Brittany. “I definitely think it speaks to the quality of the storytelling and the crafting of the characters that a series with a gradual rollout still has this much momentum and excitement.”
Other nods went to Emily Henry’s Great Big Beautiful Life (Viking), which is “striking a chord”. Rhona continued: “Her book[s] mark the beginning of spring and summer”. Lucy Rose’s debut The Lamb (Orion) and Laura Steven’s Our Infinite Fates (Penguin Children’s) have also been top performing books on the platform, according to Evie.
As to what makes a book gain traction on BookTok, John-Paul said that is “unpredictable”, but Evie believes that “once you’re familiar with the online book community you can easily predict the books that will land really well and spread across the app”. She continued: “This pattern of popularity isn’t necessarily down to specific genres, tropes or themes, but I find I can identify which books will do well on BookTok based on certain criteria […] books that are based within a popular genre/sub-genre, but have a unique premise, catchy marketing or are written by an author with a cult following can also blow up online.”
For Brittany, “people like to invest their time and money into things they know they’re going to love, because books – especially hardbacks – are quite costly investments, especially if you’re a fast reader who can devour a title in a single sitting. You want to be almost sure it will be worth it. It’s also interesting that [the top books on BookTok are] in genres a lot of readers use to escape reality from – dystopian, fantasy and romance”.
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