Fantasy literature has always offered something no other genre quite can: a complete escape from everything familiar. You close the book, and for a moment, you forget the real world even exists. The numbers back this up, too. In 2024, sci-fi and fantasy sales in the UK alone grew by £25 million compared to 2023. That kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident. People are hungry for other worlds, and the six series below have done more than any others to feed that hunger. They are not just good books. They are cultural monuments.
1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
There is no fantasy without Tolkien. It’s that simple. The Lord of the Rings series is one of the best-selling book series of all time, having sold approximately 150 million books around the world. Those numbers only scratch the surface of the true impact, though. Conservative figures from around 1995 suggested 150 million for The Lord of the Rings alone, and Tolkien’s true sales total, including 100 million copies of The Hobbit and millions more for The Silmarillion and various spin-off books, probably stands at well over 350 million. The trilogy follows the hobbit Frodo Baggins and his companions on a desperate journey to destroy the One Ring before the dark lord Sauron can reclaim it.
The series didn’t just sell well; it permanently changed the shape of storytelling. The Lord of the Rings has received numerous accolades, including being voted book of the century by Waterstones customers in the UK and named the nation’s best-loved novel by the BBC in “The Big Read” poll. The financial legacy is staggering too. The series inspired a highly successful film trilogy that grossed over $2.9 billion at the box office and won 17 Academy Awards. The value of Tolkien books and manuscripts has risen considerably over the last decade, reflecting the love and affection readers have for his remarkable writing and world creation.
2. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Few books in history have caused the kind of frenzy that Harry Potter created. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series sold over 500 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling fantasy book series of all time. The story of a young orphan who discovers he is a wizard and enrolls at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry resonated across every culture and language imaginable. As of June 2017, the series had been translated into 85 languages, and the last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books of all time. The final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, sold roughly 15 million copies worldwide within 24 hours of its release.
The commercial machine behind Harry Potter has shown extraordinary staying power well into the 2020s. Bloomsbury, the British publisher of the Harry Potter series, reported a 30% jump in sales to £343 million and a nearly 60% hike in profits to £49 million in the year ending February 29, 2024, partly driven by the continued strength of Harry Potter sales. New content keeps the flame alive, too. The anticipation of a new HBO series slated for release in 2026 is expected to generate renewed buzz and potentially impact consumer demand for franchise products, including books. Harry Potter isn’t fading. If anything, it keeps finding new readers with every generation.
3. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
George R.R. Martin didn’t just write a fantasy series. He redefined what fantasy could be for adult readers. First published in 1996, A Game of Thrones introduced the world to Westeros, a brutal continent where noble houses clash for control of the Iron Throne, and where good intentions guarantee nothing. Moral ambiguity pervades the books, and many of the storylines frequently raise questions concerning loyalty, pride, human sexuality, piety, and the morality of violence. The series started quietly, but grew steadily through word of mouth before exploding in popularity. The books reportedly sold a further nine million copies in the first year of the HBO TV show alone, from 2011 to 2012.
The milestones kept stacking up over the following decade. As of 2026, more than 100 million copies in 47 languages had been sold. That puts Martin in truly elite company. Crossing the 100 million mark puts Martin in rarefied company. In the secondary world and epic fantasy field, he is just behind Sir Terry Pratchett and Robert Jordan, who have both also crossed the 100 million mark in the last few years, though J.R.R. Tolkien continues to rule the roost with at least 300 million sales of his various Middle-earth books. Fans worldwide are still waiting on the long-delayed sixth volume, The Winds of Winter, with an anticipation that has rarely been matched in publishing history.
4. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Robert Jordan began building his monumental fantasy series in 1990, and what started as an ambitious project eventually grew into something far larger than anyone anticipated. Though Jordan only planned for the series to total six books, it eventually ballooned to fourteen in the core story, as well as a couple of prequels and companions. The story centers on Rand al’Thor, a young man from a rural village who discovers he may be the legendary Dragon Reborn, the only one with the power to save the world from the dark force known as the Shadow. The Wheel of Time rapidly became the biggest post-Tolkien epic fantasy series after its launch in 1990, with books 8 through 14 each becoming New York Times number one bestsellers, an unheard-of feat for epic fantasy.
The series was faced with a heartbreaking setback when Jordan passed away in 2007 before completing it. When Jordan prematurely passed away at the age of 58 in 2007, his widow passed his extensive notes to Brandon Sanderson, who turned those notes into the three well-reviewed final volumes. The series has sold over 90 million copies worldwide. The story received a significant new wave of readers thanks to a recent television adaptation. Sales of the series have continued to grow since then, but got a sharp boost from the launch of Amazon’s Wheel of Time television series in 2021, with more than 5 million additional sales in five years.
5. The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson is one of the most productive and beloved fantasy authors of his generation, and The Stormlight Archive stands as his defining masterwork. Set on the storm-ravaged world of Roshar, the series features an intricate magic system tied to gemstones and the ancient, mysterious Shardblades. Sanderson’s world-building is extraordinarily detailed, making Roshar feel as tangible and immersive as Middle-earth ever did. The “biggest release the fantasy genre has seen in years” came about in December 2024 with the unveiling of Wind and Truth, Sanderson’s fifth and final book in the first arc of The Stormlight Archive. The series has attracted an intensely loyal fan base who follow every twist of the Cosmere, Sanderson’s interconnected fictional universe.
Sanderson’s commercial trajectory over the past two years has been remarkable by any standard. Brandon Sanderson recently passed 50 million books sold, while Sarah J. Maas recently hit 75 million copies sold and is selling books at a staggering rate, demonstrating just how explosive the current modern fantasy market has become. Sanderson’s direct-to-fan model has also shattered records. In 2022, his second Kickstarter project raised over $41.7 million for four secret books, and the crowdfunding campaign became the largest in Kickstarter history by pledge volume, surpassing the previous record holder by more than double. His influence on the modern fantasy landscape is hard to overstate.
6. Discworld by Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is unlike anything else on this list. It is funny, yes, but it is also razor-sharp, deeply humane, and quietly devastating in ways most serious fiction never manages. By far the largest series on this list by number of volumes, Pratchett wrote 41 Discworld books between 1983 and his death in 2015. The series is set on a flat world balanced on the backs of four giant elephants, which themselves stand on the shell of a colossal turtle drifting through space. Within that absurd premise, Pratchett dismantled everything from organized religion to the nature of death with surgical wit. Even spread out over dozens of titles, its 85 million books sold is more than impressive. Pratchett was one of the most beloved UK authors of all time and was the nation’s best-selling author of the 1990s.
What makes Discworld endure long after Pratchett’s passing is its extraordinary depth. Readers return to books they’ve read five times and still find something new. Discworld by Terry Pratchett is a beloved series that has sold over 80 million copies, and while it may not be as well known to casual readers as the first few series on this list, it has cemented itself as a favorite with devoted fans of fantasy. The series is also a rare case of a long-running multi-author universe where every volume maintains a consistent quality of voice. Pratchett’s legacy continues to grow because new readers keep discovering the series, often on a friend’s recommendation, and immediately devouring every volume they can find.
Each of these six series has proven that great fantasy writing does something essential: it holds a mirror to the real world through the lens of the impossible. They have collectively sold hundreds of millions of copies across scores of languages, inspired films, television series, video games, and entire sub-cultures. Many of the best-selling fantasy books are part of long-running series, creating loyal fanbases and ensuring consistent sales over decades. The worlds built by Tolkien, Rowling, Martin, Jordan, Sanderson, and Pratchett are not escapes from reality so much as deeper ways of understanding it.
