The Audiobooks Market Recovered and Rallied Led by Audible
This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - Replacing Humans?. Check out the full article for more insights.
I've been fascinated by the audiobook market on mobile for a few years now having followed the rise of Audible as the leader.
I should probably add the rise is "meteoric" because according to Appfigures estimates, Audible's monthly app revenue grew more than 12,000% between the beginning of 2020 and this February!
But it wasn't a simple up-and-to-the-right...
Audible enjoyed a very growth-full period between 2020 and 2022. Our App Intelligence shows net revenue, what Audible's parent Amazon gets to keep after Apple and Google take their fees, rose from a few hundreds of thousands in January of 2020 to $30M in December of 2022.
That's a lot of growth!
But increased competition combined with the end of lockdowns and what felt like a drop in promoted ads by Audible led to a year that started high and ended low. Lower than where 2022 ended.
In 2024 Audible made changes to its subscription tiers, brought on more exclusives, and optimized its marketing. Our App Intelligence shows that the concoction worked!
Although Audible's revenue didn't start out high, just $35M net vs $40M net (after fees) the year before, revenue really rallied as the year progressed. The trend resembles that of its more successful years but steeper, leading to a new all-time revenue high in January of 2025 that saw $63M of net revenue, according to our estimates.
This growth led to 2024 being Audible's best year of revenue, with $440M of net revenue, according to our estimates. And that's not all. While Q1 of 2025 isn't over yet, Audible's revenue is already higher than every other quarter before it!
With success comes competition, and while it seems impossible to compete with a behemoth like Amazon when it comes to books, Google and a few others are already doing it. I suspect we'll see that intensifying this year.
App Intelligence for Everyone!
The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.
Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.
All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.
