Digital book sales in the Untied States, have been in a state of freefall all year long. This is primarily attributed to the vast majority of people no longer in lockdown and are not buying as many ebooks anymore. The Association of American Publishers have announced that ebook revenues were down 12.2% for March, 2022, as compared to March 2021 for a total of $76.9 million. Digital audiobook sales were up 8.4% for March, coming in at $63.5 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 20.1% coming in at $1.3 million.

Year-to-date ebook revenues were down 9.8% as compared to the first three months of 2021 for a total of $249.3 million. Digital audiobooks was up 2.7%, coming in at $194.5 million in revenue. Physical Audio was down 23.4% coming in at $3.7 million.

Trade sales were down 6.4% in March, coming in at $702.5 million. In terms of physical paper format revenues during the month of March, in the Trade (Consumer Books) category, Hardback revenues were down 19.0%, coming in at $238.1 million; Paperbacks were up 8.6%, with $266.0 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 30.7% to $14.3 million; and Special Bindings were down 17.6%, with $12.7 million in revenue. Paper formats still account for 75.6% of all trade sales.

Year-to-date Trade revenues were up 2.0%, at $2.1 billion for the first three months of the year. Hardback revenues were down 3.0%, coming in at $740.6 million; Paperbacks were up 14.6%, with $763.5 million in revenue; Mass Market was down 20.1% to $49.4 million; and Special Bindings were down 3.1%, with $43.6 million in revenue.

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