With 2021 in the books, you may be wondering what books sold the most for the year? Even with a dozen guesses, you would not get it right unless you have children. Find out the best-selling books of 2021 and how much copies they sold!
Dan Pilkey is the Best Selling Author of 2021
In 2020, the best-selling authors were Barack Obama and Stephanie Meyer at the number one and two spot. The third spot went to children’s book author Day Pilkey. Third place may be great for some people but not for Pilkey as he made the jump to the first spot in 2021.
His book Mothering Heights (Dog Man #10) sold over almost 1.3 million copies and his other book Cat Kid Comic Club sold over 600,000 copies. It comes as no surprise that Dav Pilkey was the best-selling author this year. To add to his great run, Dog Man #9, Grime and Punishment sold over 550,000 copies sold.

In second place and the only other book to sell over a million copies is Mark R. Levin’s American Marxism with a 1,025,638 copies. He barely made it over the million mark but was able to edge it out. And in third place was Jeff Kinney’s Big Shot (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #16) with over 985,000 copies and The Deep End (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #15) selling over 540,00 copies.
The Best Selling Books of 2021
You can check out the full list via Publisher’s weekly.
- Dav Pilkey, Mothering Heights (Dog Man #10) (1,295,470 copies sold)
- Mark R. Levin, American Marxism (1,025,638 copies sold)
- Jeff Kinney, Big Shot (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #16) (985,308 copies sold)
- Charlie Macksey, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (954,434 copies sold)
- James Clear, Atomic Habits (894,163 copies sold)
- Colleen Hoover, It Ends With Us (768,693 copies sold)
- Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (731,075 copies sold)
- Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! (727,341 copies sold)
- Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements (713,696 copies sold)
- Kristin Hannah, The Four Winds (711,705 copies sold)
- Adam Silvera, They Both Die at the End (684,982 copies sold)
- Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles (652,906 copies sold)
- Matt Haig, The Midnight Library (652,763 copies sold)
- Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing (625,599 copies sold)
- Dav Pilkey, Cat Kid Comic Club (617,821 copies sold)
- Hepworth/Warnes, I Love You to the Moon and Back (608,498 copies sold)
- Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score (607,062 copies sold)
- Jeff Kinney, Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories (577,515 copies sold)
- Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (562,002 copies sold)
- Dav Plikey, Grime and Punishment (Dog Man #9) (557,918 copies sold)
- Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb (551,584 copies sold)
- Bill Martin Jr., Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (548,592 copies sold)
- Jeff Kinney, The Deep End (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #15) (543,624 copies sold)
- Laura Dave, The Last Thing He Told Me (531,404 copies sold)
- John Grisham, The Judge’s List (517,436 copies sold)
The Top Ten
Some notable mentions on this list include Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us which sold 768,693 copies and just missed out of the top five. She will be charting a lot of books in this year’s end list and is easily going to be the best-selling author.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle too the 7th spot followed by Dr. Suess’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!. A book we recently covered on this blog made the ninth spot, Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements. And closing the top ten is one of my favorite authors, Kristin Hannah. I am glad that she has gained a wider audience because she is an amazing writer that has a way with words.
Conclusion
What did you think of the best-selling books of 2021? Did you read any of the books or plan to? Let us know in the comments below!
My niece adores the books by Dave Pilkey and I think he’s extremely witty and talented.