In search of alternatives to screens to entertain ourselves, adults and children alike are turning to activity books as form of relaxation. Recently, this popularity has grown to the point of impacting the book market quite a bit. According to Publishers Weekly, in the US this category of books was a growth driver within the children’s market in 2025.
We wanted to know if that was also the case in the Canadian book market. And we wanted to know the popularity breakdown of activity books in the Young Adult, Juvenile, and Non Fiction categories. So we dug into SalesData and looked at their performance over the last few years.
For the following categories, we looked at data in the first nine months of the year (January to September) from 2017 to 2026. Keep reading to learn about how each subcategory might have been impacted over this time period, how sales have changed over this year in comparison to the last, and to find out the top selling activity books in 2026 so far!
Young Adult activity books
Overall, sales for Young Adult / Young Adult Nonfiction / Activity Books dropped by a staggering 84% between 2017 to 2026. Sales started out at their highest in 2017 before there was a sharp drop in 2018 and a continued decline until 2020. In 2021 and 2022, popularity of activity books picked up a little before dropping again in 2023. While sales did pick up again in 2024, they have been on a continuous downward trend into 2026.
Juvenile activity books
Non Fiction categories
Sales for titles in the Juvenile / Juvenile Nonfiction / Activity Books category however have increased by 5% overall from 2017 to 2026. Sales saw their biggest increase, a 40% rise, from 2019 to 2020. They plateaued during the pandemic years, and then started decreasing in 2023.
The subcategories with the largest increases between 2017 and 2026 were:
- Juvenile / Juvenile Nonfiction / Activity Books / Coloring –– up by 1,197%
- Juvenile / Juvenile Nonfiction / Activity Books / Sticker –– up by 605%
- Juvenile / Juvenile Nonfiction / Activity Books / General –– up by 33%
We then zoomed in to look at the percent change in sales for these categories between 2025 and 2026:
- Juvenile / Juvenile Nonfiction / Activity Books / Coloring –– up by 13%
- Juvenile / Juvenile Nonfiction / Activity Books / Sticker –– up by 15%
- Juvenile / Juvenile Nonfiction / Activity Books / General –– down by 7%
Fiction categories
Unlike the other categories, sales for Juvenile / Juvenile Fiction / Activity Books have been growing at a consistently steady rate since 2021. Overall, sales for this category grew by 193% from 2017 to 2026 and between 2025 and 2026 alone, sales grew by 41%.
The subcategories with the largest increases between 2017 and 2026 were:
- Juvenile / Juvenile Fiction / Activity Books / Coloring –– up by 4,300%
- Juvenile / Juvenile Fiction / Activity Books / Sticker –– up by 372%
- Juvenile / Juvenile Fiction / Activity Books / General – down by 23%
We then zoomed in to look at the percent change in sales for these categories between 2025 and 2026:
- Juvenile / Juvenile Fiction / Activity Books / Coloring –– up by 76%
- Juvenile / Juvenile Fiction / Activity Books / Sticker –– up by 57%
- Juvenile / Juvenile Fiction / Activity Books / General – down by 13%
Non-Fiction activity books
Overall, sales for titles in the Games & Activities / Activity Books category grew by 59% from 2017 to 2026, hitting at their peak in 2020. There was then a steady decline from 2022 to 2024 before picking up again in 2025 and 2026. Looking at 2026, sales increased by 66% when compared to 2025.
Top selling activity books
The top selling activity books across all the categories listed above so far this year all belong to the Juvenile Fiction category. They are:
- Cozy Corner by Coco Wyo
- Cozy Cuties by Coco Wyo
- Cozy Friends by Coco Wyo
- Girl Moments by Coco Wyo
- Cozy Days by Coco Wyo
