These were the most listened-to audiobooks in “BookBeat land” in 2025

Audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular across Europe, and more and more people continue to discover just how easy it is to find and enjoy books — only a few clicks away. The annual rankings of the most-listened titles, authorships and narrators in BookBeat’s markets during 2025 are now ready. This year’s most-listened book across all BookBeat markets was the German translation of the international hit Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros.

Every year, based on user data, BookBeat summarizes how audiobook listening has developed across all its European markets. The markets included are Finland, Sweden, DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Poland, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. The rankings are based on the total number of hours that books, authors, and narrators have been consumed on the BookBeat platform.

In terms of genres, crime, novels, and romance are where European listeners have spent most of their time. However, this year’s most-listened book across all BookBeat markets was the romantasy sensation Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros.

“Crime fiction still has a strong hold on all our markets. Many fantastic books in the genre have been released in Europe this year, and although we see some differences between markets, this is overall where most listening happens when we look across all of them. It’s also a genre that seems to be particularly well suited to the audiobook format. But listeners also spend a great deal of time on both novels and romance, so the popularity of these three genres is clearly reflected in the top-lists,” says Anna Riklund Sandin, Head of Book Performance & Curation at BookBeat.

“But the most exciting thing is seeing how much audiobook listening continues to grow in society at large, and that so many people choose to engage with all the fantastic books published each year, despite the tough competition from all other forms of entertainment,” says Anna Riklund Sandin.

Europe’s most-listened books 2025:

All BookBeat markets – Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (German translation)
Finland – Erikoisjoukoissa – Janne Lehtosen tarina by Kati Pukki & Janne Lehtonen
Sweden – Gråterskan by Camilla Läckberg
DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) – Onyx Storm – Flammengeküsst by Rebecca Yarros
Poland – Onyx Storm. Onyksowa burza by Rebecca Yarros
The Netherlands – De verborgen belofte by Lucinda Riley
Norway – Det ender med oss by Colleen Hoover
Denmark – Tælle til en, tælle til to by Søren Sveistrup
United Kingdom – The Tenant by Freida McFadden

For the full top-lists of books, authorships and narrators for each market, please see the attached pdf.

All lists are based on the total number of hours listened on BookBeat in the respective markets during 2025, for books in the local language. The list of the year’s most listened-to books is based only on books released in 2025. The list of the year’s most listened-to authorships is based on listening across the author’s entire catalogue, including titles from all years. The list of the year’s most listened-to narrators is based on listening to books that were both released and recorded in 2025.