| The Tale of Peter Rabbit | Beatrix Potter | English | 1902 | 45 million[52][citation needed] | Children's Literature |
| Jonathan Livingston Seagull | Richard Bach | English | 1970 | 44 million[53] | Novella, Self-help |
| The Very Hungry Caterpillar | Eric Carle | English | 1969 | 43 million [54] | Children's Literature |
| A Message to Garcia | Elbert Hubbard | English | 1899 | 40 million[43] | Essay/Literature |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | English | 1960 | 40 million[55] | Southern Gothic, Bildungsroman |
| Flowers in the Attic | V. C. Andrews | English | 1979 | 40 million[56] | Gothic horror, Family saga |
| Cosmos | Carl Sagan | English | 1980 | 40 million [57] | Popular science, Anthropology, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Philosophy, History |
| Sophie's World (Sofies verden) | Jostein Gaarder | Norwegian | 1991 | 40 million[58] | Philosophical novel, Young adult |
| Angels & Demons | Dan Brown | English | 2000 | 39 million[59] | Mystery-thriller |
| Kane and Abel | Jeffrey Archer | English | 1979 | 37 million[60] | Novel |
| How the Steel Was Tempered (Как закалялась сталь) | Nikolai Ostrovsky | Russian | 1932 | 36.4 million copies in USSR[61] | Socialist realist novel |
| War and Peace (Война и мир) | Leo Tolstoy | Russian | 1869 | 36 million copies in Russia[61] | Historical novel |
| The Diary of Anne Frank (Het Achterhuis) | Anne Frank | Dutch | 1947 | 35 million[62] | Historical non-fiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Bildungsroman / Coming of Age, Jewish literature |
| Your Erroneous Zones | Wayne Dyer | English | 1976 | 35 million[63][64] | Self-help |
| The Thorn Birds | Colleen McCullough | English | 1977 | 33 million[65] | Romantic family saga |
| The Purpose Driven Life | Rick Warren | English | 2002 | 33 million[66] | Christian literature |
| The Kite Runner | Khaled Hosseini | English | 2003 | 31.5 million[67] | Bildungsroman, Historical fiction |
| Valley of the Dolls | Jacqueline Susann | English | 1966 | 31 million[68] | Novel |
| Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book | Bill Wilson | English | 1939 | 30 million[69][70] | Self-help |
| How to Win Friends and Influence People | Dale Carnegie | English | 1936 | Over 30 million[71][72] | Self-help |
| The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | English | 1925 | 30 million ("around")[73] | Novel, Tragedy |
| Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell | English | 1936 | 30 million (est.)[74] | Historical Fiction |
| Rebecca | Daphne du Maurier | English | 1938 | 30 million (est.)[75] | Gothic novel |
| Nineteen Eighty-Four | George Orwell | English | 1949 | 30 million[76] | Dystopian, political fiction, social science fiction |
| The Revolt of Mamie Stover | William Bradford Huie | English | 1951 | 30 million[77] | Fiction |
| The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor) | Stieg Larsson | Swedish | 2005 | 30 million[78] | Fiction |
| The Lost Symbol | Dan Brown | English | 2009 | 30 million[79] | Fiction |
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | English | 2008 | 29 million in US[80] | Young adult fiction |
| James and the Giant Peach | Roald Dahl | English | 1961 | 28 million[81] | Children's novel |
| The Young Guard (Молодая гвардия) | Alexander Alexandrovich Fadeyev | Russian | 1945 | 26 million copies in USSR[61] | Young adult historical novel |
| Who Moved My Cheese? | Spencer Johnson | English | 1998 | 28[82] - 30[83] million | Self-help, Motivational, Business fable, Psychology, Leadership, Parable |
| A Brief History of Time | Stephen Hawking | English | 1988 | 25 million[84] | Popular science |
| Paul et Virginie | Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre | French | 1788 | 25 million[85] | Novel |
| Lust for Life | Irving Stone | English | 1934 | 25 million[86] | Biographical novel |
| The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | English | 1908 | 25 million[87] | Children's literature |
| The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | Stephen R. Covey | English | 1989 | 25 million[88] | Self-help |
| Virgin Soil Upturned (Поднятая целина) | Mikhail Sholokhov | Russian | 1935 | 24 million copies in USSR[61] | |
| The Celestine Prophecy | James Redfield | English | 1993 | 23 million[89] | New-age spiritual novel |
| The Fault in Our Stars | John Green | English | 2012 | 23 million[90] | Young adult romantic novel |
| The Girl on the Train | Paula Hawkins | English | 2015 | 23 million[91] | Thriller |
| The Shack | William P. Young | English | 2007 | 22 million[92] | Novel |
| Uncle Styopa (Дядя Степа) | Sergey Mikhalkov | Russian | 1936 | 21 million copies in USSR[61] | |
| The Godfather | Mario Puzo | English | 1969 | 21 million[93] | Crime novel |
| Love Story | Erich Segal | English | 1970 | 21 million[94] | Romance novel |
| Catching Fire | Suzanne Collins | English | 2009 | 21 million in US[80] | Young adult Novel, Adventure, Dystopian, Science fiction |
| Mockingjay | Suzanne Collins | English | 2010 | 20 million in US[80] | Young adult Novel, Adventure, War, Science fiction, Action Thriller |
| Kitchen | Banana Yoshimoto | Japanese | 1988 | 20 million [95] | Japanese novel |
| Andromeda Nebula | Ivan Yefremov | Russian | 1957 | 20 million[96] | Science fiction novel |
| Autobiography of a Yogi | Paramahansa Yogananda | Hindi | 1946 | 20 million[97] | Autobiography |
| Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn | English | 2012 | 20 million[98] | Crime thriller novel |
| All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) | Erich Maria Remarque | German | 1929 | 20 million[99] | War novel |
| The Bermuda Triangle | Charles Berlitz | English | 1974 | 20 million[100] | |
| Things Fall Apart | Chinua Achebe | English | 1958 | 20 million[101] | Novel |
| Animal Farm | George Orwell | English | 1945 | 20 million[102] | Satirical allegorical novella, Political satire, Dystopian Fiction, Roman à clef |
| Wolf Totem (狼图腾) | Jiang Rong | Chinese | 2004 | 20 million[103] | Semi-autobiographical novel |
| The Happy Hooker: My Own Story | Xaviera Hollander | English | 1971 | 20 million[104] | Memoir |
| Jaws | Peter Benchley | English | 1974 | 20 million[105] | Thriller |
| Love You Forever | Robert Munsch | English | 1986 | 20 million[106] | Children's literature, Picture book, Fiction |
| The Women's Room | Marilyn French | English | 1977 | 20 million[107] | Feminist novel |
| What to Expect When You're Expecting | Arlene Eisenberg and Heidi Murkoff | English | 1984 | 20 million[108] | Pregnancy guide |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | English | 1885 | 20 million[109] | Picaresque novel, Bildungsroman, Satire, Robinsonade |
| The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ | Sue Townsend | English | 1982 | 20 million[110] | Young adult novel |
| Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen | English | 1813 | 20 million[111][112] | Classic Regency novel, Romance |
| Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft (Kon-Tiki ekspedisjonen) | Thor Heyerdahl | Norwegian | 1950 | 20 million[113] | Travel literature |
| The Good Soldier Švejk (Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války) | Jaroslav Hašek | Czech | 1923 | 20 million (printed)[114] | Unfinished satirical dark comedy novel |
| Where the Wild Things Are | Maurice Sendak | English | 1963 | 20 million[115] | Children's picture book |
| The Power of Positive Thinking | Norman Vincent Peale | English | 1952 | 20 million[116] | Self-help |
| The Secret | Rhonda Byrne | English | 2006 | 20 million[117] | Self-help |
| Fear of Flying | Erica Jong | English | 1973 | 20 million[118] | Romantic novel |
| Dune | Frank Herbert | English | 1965 | 20 million[119] | Science fiction novel |
| Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Roald Dahl | English | 1964 | 20 million[120] | Children's fantasy novel |
| The Naked Ape | Desmond Morris | English | 1968 | 20 million[121] | Social Science, Anthropology, Psychology |