Hi Friend,
Once thought of as a niche or cult corner of fiction, horror is back with a vengeance.
From Slump to Resurgence
During the pandemic years, darker genres took a dive — dystopian, apocalyptic, horror — you name it. Escapist and non-triggering fiction surged instead, as seen in the rise of “cozy fantasy.” Romance was the odd one out, with darker themes thriving nevertheless.
Despite a Fear-Saturated News Cycle
Counterintuitively, despite today’s conflict-driven, fear-saturated news cycle, one of the darkest genres has made a remarkable comeback — this time with fresh ideas, cross-genre energy and new creative directions.
Timeline of a Comeback
- The first signs of a horror renaissance appeared in 2023. In the U.S., Circana BookScan reported a 24.2% spike in horror book sales.
- In the U.K., The Bookseller, citing Nielsen data, noted that sales of horror and ghost stories rose by 54% in value to £7.7 million — the strongest year on record for the genre.
- 2024 continued the trend with double-digit growth across both geographies.
- In 2025, the cross-media cultural tailwind is unmistakable. Horror box office revenues have blown past $1 billion in 2025, led by The Conjuring: Last Rites and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, both pulling fresh audiences back to the page.
- Overall, Google search interest for “horror books” is up more than 70% between 2020 and 2025.
Hidden in Plain Sight on Kindle
The re-emergence of horror on Kindle was somewhat hidden. Titles were scattered across Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense (MTS), and Sci-Fi & Fantasy.
The main Horror category showed strong growth — but much of it came from dark romance and dark fantasy. Meanwhile, “classic” horror fiction, horror suspense, and psychological thrillers found their footing again in the MTS ecosystem. Here, the horror bestseller ranks show a clear upward trend.
A Wide Range of Opportunities
Horror today spans a broad spectrum — from tight psychological dread to survival and apocalyptic horror, to cosmic, techno, gothic, and supernatural chills.
Readers crave fear in all its forms — and the market is rewarding authors who deliver it with focus and precision. To do that, you need solid market intelligence.
The Horror Fiction Report & Seminar
I’m thrilled to share the brand-new K-lytics Horror Fiction Report 2025, where we unpack these developments and look at how the genre’s comeback translates into today’s Kindle sales data.
Learn more about the sales trends, high-selling cover art, top categories, keywords, best price points, changes in trending tropes and characters, power words for titles and book descriptions, and so much more.
We computed the market share for more than 20 horror sub-genres.
As always, I guide you through the results in a 1-hour video. Here, we turn data into insights and action.
Spend more time on your writing and save yourself countless hours of research:
Happy publishing!
Alex
K-lytics | ebook market intelligence for success
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K-lytics.com | Newton Production AG
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