NYT Best Seller Analysis: May 2025
Monthly breakdown of the NYT Combined Fiction Best Sellers list with a focus on romance and romantasy books.
Hello friends! Here is the second free edition of my monthly analysis of The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers list focused on romance and romantasy books. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Starting next month these detailed updates will be a benefit for paid subscribers (only US$5/month or US$50/year).
Data Source
List: The New York Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers
Sales Period: May 2025 (4 weeks: May 4 to 31, 2025)1
Frontlist = Published in the last year
Backlist = Published more than a year ago
Romance & Romantasy Book Ranking
All romance and romantasy books on the list in the May 2025 sales period, ranked by # of weeks this month, then # of weeks all time, then average rank this month.
FRONTLIST (16 books)
Published in the last year
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 13)
All Time: 19 weeksGreat Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 5)
All Time: 6 weeksOne Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
This Month: 4 weeks (Avg Rank: 5)
All Time: 4 weeksShield of Sparrows by Devney Perry
This Month: 3 weeks (Avg Rank: 9)
All Time: 3 weeksThe Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 7)
All Time: 2 weeksKing of Envy by Ana Huang
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 11)
All Time: 2 weeks
A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 1)
All Time: 1 weekHidden Nature by Nora Roberts
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 2)
All Time: 1 weekProblematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 3)
All Time: 1 weekReleasing 10 by Chloe Walsh
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 4)
All Time: 1 weekCan’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 5)
All Time: 1 weekRewind It Back by Liz Tomforde
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 5)
All Time: 1 week
Silver Elite by Dani Francis
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 6)
All Time: 1 weekBeautiful Venom by Rina Kent
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 9)
All Time: 1 weekThe Love Haters by Katherine Center
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 15)
All Time: 1 weekThunder Game by Christine Feehan
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 15)
All Time: 1 week
BACKLIST (3 books)
Published more than a year ago
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 13)
All Time: 95 weeksIron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
This Month: 2 weeks (Avg Rank: 7)
All Time: 66 weeksLights Out by Navessa Allen
This Month: 1 week (Avg Rank: 12)
All Time: 16 weeks
Genre Breakdown
📚 ALL BOOKS (35)
Romance: 37% (13)
Romantasy: 17% (6)
Mystery & Thriller: 31% (11)
Fiction: 9% (3)
Fantasy: 3% (1)
Poetry: 3% (1)
🩷 Romance & Romantasy = 54% (19 books)
In May, the most popular genre on the list was Romance at 37%, followed closely by Mystery & Thriller at 31%. If we combine Romance & Romantasy books it makes up the largest segment at 54%.
Compared to last month, the percentage of Romance books more than doubled, while both Romantasy and Fiction titles decreased (see chart below). This is partly due to the seasonal release of summer/beach reads in the Romance category.
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY BOOKS (19)
Romantasy: 32% (6)
Contemporary: 26% (5)
Dark: 10.5% (2)
Sports: 10.5% (2)
Suspense: 10.5% (2)
Paranormal: 5% (1)
Science Fiction: 5% (1)
Within the Romance & Romantasy category, the Romantasy subgenre dominated with 32%, but not nearly as much as last month when it accounted for 65% of the category’s titles. Contemporary wasn’t far behind with 26%, while the other books were a mix of Dark, Sports, Suspense, Paranormal, and Science Fiction Romance. Quite a diverse mix of romance subgenres this month!
Publication Date
Frontlist = Published in the last year
Backlist = Published more than a year ago
📚 ALL BOOKS (35)
# on Frontlist: 86% (30)
# on Backlist: 14% (5)
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY BOOKS (19)
# on Frontlist: 84% (16)
# on Backlist: 16% (3)
While April had a large number of backlist titles, May was dominated by frontlist titles for all books on the list (86%) as well as in the Romance & Romantasy category (84%). Again, we can attribute much of this shift to the seasonal release of summer/beach reads in the Romance category.
Looking at the chart below, you can see the significant increase in the number of frontlist Romance & Romantasy titles on the list, jumping from 53% last month to 84% this month.
Author Analysis
📚 ALL BOOKS (35)
# Unique Authors: 91% (32)
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY BOOKS (19)
# Unique Authors: 89% (17)
# BIPOC Authors: 11% (2)
As shown in the chart below, there was a much higher percentage of unique authors in May (i.e., fewer authors with multiples book titles on the list)—and this is primarily due to Sarah J. Maas having no titles on the list (compared to 5 last month!). Rebecca Yarros (3 books) and Freida McFadden (2 books) were the only authors with multiple books on the list in the May sales period.
In the Romance & Romantasy category, 2 of the 19 books (11%) were written by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Colour) authors, compared to 2 of 17 books (18%) last month.
Note: I’m only planning to track BIPOC authors in the Romance & Romantasy category.
Publisher Type
📚 ALL BOOKS (35)
Big Five: 71% (25)
Other Traditional: 29% (10)
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY BOOKS (19)
Big Five: 53% (10)
Penguin Random House: 6
Hachette: 2
Macmillan: 2
Other Traditional: 47% (9)
Entangled: 5
Sourcebooks: 3
Zando: 1
Similar to last month, the majority of all books on the list (71%) in May were published by a Big Five publisher (up slightly from 65% last month).
Unlike last month, the majority (53%) of titles in the Romance & Romantasy category were published by a Big Five publisher compared to only 41% last month (see chart below).
Average Weeks on List
📚 ALL BOOKS (35)
Frontlist: 2 weeks
Backlist: 56 weeks
🩷 ROMANCE & ROMANTASY BOOKS (19)
Frontlist: 3 weeks
Backlist: 59 weeks
There isn’t a huge difference between the average number of weeks on the list for all books compared to Romance & Romantasy books.
Happy reading! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments!
Sales Period: May 2025 (4 weeks: May 4 to 31, 2025)
↳ Lists Included:
The New York Times Best Sellers lists reflect sales from the week starting three Sundays prior to their publication date. For example, the May 25, 2025 list reflects sales from the week of May 4 to 10, 2025.
The sales periods will vary between being 4 or 5 weeks in length.