Bible Sales Explode, Beat Average Book Sales Growth by Whopping 2,100 Percent
New sales of the “Good Book,” the Bible, grew 21 times more than new book sales overall this year.
The Wall Street Journal reported, “Bible sales are up 22% in the U.S. through the end of October, compared with the same period last year, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. By contrast, total U.S. print book sales were up less than 1% in that period.”
If we compare those numbers to each other, the Bible outpaced the average of those sales by 21 times, or a staggering 2,100 percent.
Annual Bible sales leaped from 9.7 million in 2019 to 14.2 million last year and 13.7 million through the end of October 2024.
Certainly much has happened since 2019 to make the world feel shaky, including a worldwide pandemic, social unrest, high inflation and overall economic insecurity, as well as major wars in Europe and the Middle East.
“People are experiencing anxiety themselves, or they’re worried for their children and grandchildren,” Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, told the Journal. “It’s related to artificial intelligence, election cycles … and all of that feeds a desire for assurance that we’re going to be OK.”
Young first-time Bible buyers are helping boost sales.
“You have a generation that wants to find things that feel more solid,” Amy Simpson of Tyndale House Publishers told the Journal.
Social media influencer and reality TV star Cely Vazquez is an example of a younger adult who recently bought her first Bible.
“I have never purchased my own Bible, or studied it or read it, and now, at 28 years old, I’ve been finding myself having this deeper craving for really understanding what it means to walk with God — and I think that definitely starts with reading and studying the Bible,” she said in a short video.
Buying my first Bible at 28 years old ahhhh im so excited to finally read & study it🥹💖 i was thinking about starting with the Gospel? What do yall think? 💖
Cely Vazquez via Tik Tok
Source: https://t.co/13t0J8GZI3 pic.twitter.com/0qgMxTgY19
— x_file_manager (@x_file_manager) December 4, 2024
She went to her local Barnes and Noble in southern California and purchased one from the “She Reads Truth” line at the store.
With the proliferation of new editions and designs, it is the “golden age of Bible publishing,” the Journal said.
Even President-elect Donald Trump got in on the action, teaming up with singer Lee Greenwood to promote the “God Bless the USA” Bible last spring in time for Easter.
Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless The USA Bible. @TheLeeGreenwood https://t.co/1KK5QgVK85 pic.twitter.com/XoCIeGDpAg
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) March 26, 2024
“Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country, and I truly believe that we need to bring them back and bring them back fast,” he said. “I think it’s one of the biggest problems we have. That’s why our country is going haywire.”
“This Bible is a reminder that the biggest thing we have to bring back America and to make America great again is our religion,” he added.
Bethany Martin, who manages a Christian bookstore in Newton, Kansas, said people are “looking for hope with the world the way it is, and the Bible is what they’re reaching for.”
Bible sales up 22 percent. Young men more religious than young women for the first time since pollsters started tracking. Good trend lines. The kind of trend lines that could restore a nation. pic.twitter.com/ZNFl7RdSjc
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) December 2, 2024
The surge in interest in the Bible is coming even as those identifying as Christian in the U.S. hit a low of 68 percent last year.
That figure is down from its most recent high of 90 percent in 1980, in the wake of the Jesus People movement of the late 1960s and 70s, when likely millions came to faith. It was the last major revival in America.
💀 🏴☠️ PIRATE’S COVE
The waters of baptism signify death to living for ourself, and raising to new life with Christ.
Here are some pictures from the largest baptism in US history which took place yesterday at Pirates Cove, the historic site of the Jesus Movement in Southern… pic.twitter.com/cWyW677SlW
— Matt Brown (@evangelistmatt) July 9, 2023
Christian leaders are seeing pockets of revival break out in recent years, with mass gatherings on college campuses and beyond.
50,000 Christian’s showed up at Angel Stadium for the Harvest Crusade Revival worship in Anaheim, CA.
Amazing!!❤️❤️pic.twitter.com/zzPd6qsveI
— 🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) October 24, 2024
Michael Maiden, pastor of Church for the Nations in Phoenix, last fall compared what’s happening spiritually in the country to popping popcorn.
“Whenever you start popcorn or start heating it, nothing happens. Then all of a sudden a kernel pops, then another one, then a bunch. It’s like a multiplying factor takes over, and before you know it, the whole bag is ready to be eaten,” he said.
“There are measurable signs in the culture, not of a broad, complete revival, but the beginning kernels popping or … the first waves of something good happening,” Maiden continued, pointing to student-led revivals on many campuses.
Thousands of Christian’s praising God at the University of Georgia campus revival.
BEAUTIFUL! pic.twitter.com/YN2E8MidJE
— 🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) April 5, 2024
“So I have 1,000 percent confidence that the greatest spiritual awakening in our country’s history is in its beginning stage, and these next years we’re going to see it,” he said.
The increase in Bible sales in recent years may just be one of the indicators that revival is upon us.
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