Aurélien Fleurot, edited by Solène Delinger 7:46 a.m., February 13, 2022

Last year, the French book sector jumped 14% compared to 2019. If France does not have more readers, the French buy more books.

Result: the cultural goods sector, all combined, of which the book represents 80% of sales, shows its first growth since 2004. 

This is an effect of the health crisis on our cultural habits: book sales are increasing.

The French book sector has thus jumped by 14% compared to 2019. Result: the cultural goods sector, all combined, of which the book represents 80% of sales, shows its first growth since 2004. 

Unheard of since 2014

The so-called physical cultural goods sector did very well in 2021 thanks to books, which represent 80% of the 5.5 billion euros generated, with 383 million copies sold, according to the annual report published by the GfK group.

This is unheard of.

However, there are no more readers in France, who represent 70% of the population.

But the French buy more books. 

Explosion of manga in France

And if the purchase is made more and more often online, it is in addition to purchases in bookstores.

Another element that boosted this market: the exceptional sales of comic books plus +108% for manga and +32 for children's comics.

But overall, everything has progressed: novels, cookbooks or essays...

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Video games down

The digital book, still small, has nevertheless also gained ground.

30% of French people have bought at least one to complete this panorama of cultural goods.

Music returned to growth for the first time in fifteen years +5%, helped by the rise of vinyl.

Finally, there are still two notable drops in this sector: video games, -15% compared to 2019, and DVD videos, -40% in two years.