NYT Best Seller Analysis: April 2025
Monthly breakdown of the NYT Combined Fiction Best Sellers list with a focus on romance and romantasy books.
Hello friends! I’m introducing a new monthly column featuring my analysis of The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers list with a focus on romance and romantasy books. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Data Source
List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers
Sales Period: April 2025 (5 weeks: March 30 to May 3, 2025)
Note: The sales periods will vary between being 4 or 5 weeks in length. This will be taken into consideration if month over month comparisons are made.
↳ Lists Included:
Note: The New York Times Best Sellers lists reflect sales from the week starting three Sundays prior to their publication date. For example, the April 20, 2025 list reflects sales from the week of March 30 to April 5, 2025.
Frontlist = Published in the last year
Backlist = Published more than a year ago
Romance & Romantasy Book Ranking
A ranking of all the romance and romantasy books on the list in the April 2025 sales period. Ranked by # of weeks this month, then # of weeks all time, then average rank this month.
FRONTLIST
Published in the last year
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
This Month: 5 weeks (Avg Rank: 3)
All Time: 15 weeksSay You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 4)
All Time: 4 weeksGreat Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 2)
All Time: 2 weeksSummer in the City by Alex Aster
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 10)
All Time: 2 weeksEnchantra by Kaylie Smith
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 1)
All Time: 1 weekKing of Envy by Ana Huang
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 2)
All Time: 1 weekWild and Wrangled by Lyla Sage
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 3)
All Time: 1 weekBlood of Hercules by Jasmine Mas
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 4)
All Time: 1 weekFirebird by Juliette Cross
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 5)
All Time: 1 week
BACKLIST
Published more than a year ago
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
This Month: 5 weeks (Avg Rank: 15)
All Time: 93 weeksLights Out by Navessa Allen
This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 2)
All Time: 15 weeksIron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 10)
All Time: 64 weeksA Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 5)
All Time: 47 weeksA Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 8)
All Time: 23 weeksA Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 12)
All Time: 22 weeksA Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 11)
All Time: 10 weeksA Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 13)
All Time: 4 weeks
Genre Breakdown
📚 ALL BOOKS (37)
Mystery & Thriller: 12 (32%)
Fiction: 8 (22%)
Romantasy: 11 (30%)
Romance: 6 (16%)
🩷 Romance & Romantasy = 17 books (46%)
The most popular genre was Mystery & Thriller at 32%; however, if we combine Romance & Romantasy books it makes up the largest segment at 46%.
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY (17)
Fantasy/Romantasy: 11 (65%)
Contemporary: 3 (17%)
Dark: 2 (12%)
Western: 1 (6%)
Within the Romance & Romantasy category, the Fantasy/Romantasy subgenre dominated, accounting for 65% of the books. The other books were a mix of Contemporary, Dark, and Western Romance.
Publication Date
Frontlist = Published in the last year
Backlist = Published more than a year ago
📚 ALL BOOKS (37)
# on Frontlist: 23 (62%)
# on Backlist: 14 (38%)
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY (17)
# on Frontlist: 9 (53%)
# on Backlist: 8 (47%)
There’s a greater proportion of backlist titles in the Romance & Romantasy category (47%) compared to all books on the list (38%) in the April 2025 sales period.
Author Analysis
📚 ALL BOOKS
# Unique Books: 37
# Unique Authors: 25 (68%)
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY BOOKS
# Unique Books: 17
# Unique Authors: 11 (65%)
# BIPOC Authors: 2 (18%)
Two romantasy authors in particular dominated the list in April 2025: Sarah J. Maas (5 books) and Rebecca Yarros (3 books). Mystery/thriller authors Freida McFadden and Jeneva Rose also each had two books on the list.
In the Romance & Romantasy category, two of the 17 books (18%) were written by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Colour) authors.
Note: I’m tracking BIPOC authors only in the Romance & Romantasy category.
Publisher Type
📚 ALL BOOKS (37)
Big Five: 24 (65%)
Other Traditional: 13 (35%)
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY (17)
Big Five: 7 (41%)
Hachette: 2
HarperCollins: 2
Penguin Random House: 2
Macmillan: 1
Other Traditional: 10 (59%)
Bloomsbury: 5
Red Tower/Entangled: 3
Bloom/Sourcebooks: 1
Slowburn/Zando: 1
While the majority of books on the list (65%) were published by a Big Five publisher, this is not the case when we look at the Romance & Romantasy category where only 41% were published by a Big Five publisher.
NYT Combined Fiction Best Sellers – Publisher Type, April 2025
Average Weeks on List
📚 ALL BOOKS (37)
Frontlist: 4 weeks
Backlist: 41 weeks
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY (17)
Frontlist: 3 weeks
Backlist: 35 weeks
There wasn’t a huge difference between the average number of weeks on the list for all books compared to Romance & Romantasy books.
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Happy reading! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments!