There is a mass quiet colorful thing brewing in the book industry. After a slowdown in sales after the mid-2010s pop in adult coloring books and other cross-category arts and crafts books, the market is roaring back. Stakeholders are taking note, and the chart shows it:
In the UK during the year 2025, NielsenIQ BookData indicated that the Handicrafts, Arts and Crafts category had risen by 7.5 percent, gaining more than a million in pounds sales. Nearly all of the rise was driven by adult coloring titles. In the United States, activity book sales experienced an 18 percent rise in units sold in the year 2025 and maintained growth well above the 2023 figures through to the year 2026. The major successes among activity books have been the newer designations “cozy” or “bold and easy” coloring books, marked by simple shapes and big outlines that are more conducive to short, stress-relieving coloring sessions than completion of detailed, labor-intensive designs.
The appeal is both familiar and new. We are still seeking means of turning away from screens and onto ourselves. Coloring offers a safe space for creative expression that demands no particular talent, and offers instant “zen”. Most are happy to call it mindfulness without all the dread, and social media has helped fuel the craze. TikTok’s ColorTTK community alone has hundreds of thousands of videos, with some attracting tens of millions of views, where colorists demonstrate their processes, showcase completed pages, and make suggestions. The visual aspect lends itself well to quick satisfying clips, with the more inspired versions enticing viewers to pick up a book of their own.
Coco Wyo designs are now quite prominently leading the field and can often be found in the top ten selling titles on Amazon. The original densely packed mandala and nature based coloring books sold in huge numbers and attracted an enthusiastic following, now the more approachable styles and formats appeal to a much wider demograph, with many botanical florals, black and white photo style pages, and themed cosy scenes continuing to sell.
Other crafts are benefiting from the same rebound. “Hands-on” non-fiction genres like “guided journals, ” “basic sewing” and “puzzle books” are equally popular, with a return to screen free “tactile” activities. The effect for sellers is that those who begin by purchasing a coloring book should purchase subsequent related items or other hobbies. Gift givers continue to buy coloring books as party and holiday presents.
Others attribute the comeback to general cultural trends. Mental wellbeing remains a key concern to the masses, and creative pursuits have long been connected with resilience to stress. Also, in the era of hyper-digital amusement, finding a postmodern, analogue activity is an active and conscious choice. Coloring books can be slotted into whatever time you have free between the end of a workday and when you go to bed, and with almost no preparation can be abandoned en route to the refrigerator, or picked up from whatever page it was last left on.
