The news: Print continues to dominate consumers’ reading time, showing how digital reading may have reached a saturation point.

• About two-thirds (64%) of US adults have read a physical book in the past 12 months, per Pew Research. That’s down just 1 percentage point from 2021.
• By comparison, only 31% have read an ebook and 26% have listened to an audiobook in the past 12 months. These numbers are up only slightly from 2021, with engagement increasing 1 and 3 percentage points, respectively.

Zooming out: Print’s resilience proves that not all media behaviors migrate cleanly to digital, even after years of platform investment and habit formation. Reading remains tied to format-driven preferences like tangibility, screen fatigue, and focused attention, which digital alternatives haven’t fully addressed.

That creates a divergence from other media categories—like video or music—where digital has largely displaced physical formats. Instead, books are settling into a fragmented ecosystem where print, ebooks, and audiobooks serve distinct use cases.

Why it matters: Albeit less popular than physical books, audiobooks and ebooks are still widely used and carving out incremental usage. However, they are unlikely to overtake or match physical books in total share.

At the same time, monetization opportunities vary widely across platforms. Audio platforms in particular have limited inventory and reach relative to other digital media—Audible has ad-supported inventory, while Spotify’s audiobook offering remains ad free.

Recommendations for marketers: Prioritize cross-format audio strategies while continuing exploration in audiobooks, podcasts, and ebooks. Adoption for digital options is slowly rising, but marketers should diversify their bets and avoid relying on heavy digital migration for reading.

Expect reading behaviors to remain fragmented, requiring tailored strategies for ebooks and audiobooks rather than a one-size-fits-all digital approach.