OverDrive’s most downloaded ebooks and audiobooks in 2020

By: Adam Sockel, Integrated Marketing Specialist

This year has been different for a myriad of reasons. You don’t need us to tell you this year has been “unprecedented” or “trying” or “challenging.” The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of people to transition aspects of their lives to remain safe and socially distant. This has included how readers are getting and enjoying their books as well.

2020 is on pace to once again set records in ebooks and audiobooks borrowed on Libby and across all OverDrive platforms. Through the first 11 months of 2020, 366 million ebook and audiobooks have been checked out from public libraries worldwide —a 30% increase from 2019. The fastest-growing genres are children’s fiction (including picture books) and nonfiction, young adult fiction and nonfiction as well as comics and graphic novels.

Top 10 Ebooks Checked Out from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

• • Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • Educated by Tara Westover
  • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
  • The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
  • White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
  • The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
  • The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
  • The Guardians by John Grisham
  • Blue Moon by Lee Child

Top 10 Audiobooks Checked Out from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

• • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
  • Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Educated by Tara Westover
  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
  • So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  • White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
  • The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
  • The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Top 10 Fiction Ebooks & Audiobooks (Released in 2020) Checked Out from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

• • Walk the Wire by David Baldacci
  • Camino Winds by John Grisham
  • The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
  • The Guest List by Lucy Foley
  • The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
  • The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
  • American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
  • In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
  • Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
  • Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

Top 10 Nonfiction Ebooks & Audiobooks (Released in 2020) Checked Out from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

• • Untamed by Glennon Doyle
  • The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
  • Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
  • Too Much and Never Enough by Mary L. Trump
  • Open Book by Jessica Simpson
  • Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
  • The Room Where It Happened by John Bolton
  • Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
  • A Very Stable Genius by Philip Rucker
  • Wow, No Thank You. by Samantha Irby

Top 10 Juvenile & Young Adult Ebooks & Audiobooks Checked Out from Public Libraries Worldwide in 2020

• • Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney
  • The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  • Funny, You Don’t Look Autistic by Michael McCreary
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
  • The Maze Runner by James Dashner
  • Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs