- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is the most popular self-help book, with searches more than seven times the average
- Atomic Habits is the second most popular self-help book
- The Secret by Rhonda Byrne takes third place
Rich Dad Poor Dad is the world’s most popular self-help book, with 482,000 monthly searches on Google and Amazon combined.
The study, commissioned by digital literacy experts Typing.com, compared global estimated monthly search volumes on Google and Amazon for 50 of the most well-known self-help books, to discover the most popular.
The most popular self-help book is Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!, by Robert Kiyosaki. The book is searched for 72,000 times every month on Amazon, and an incredible 410,000 times on Google. This gives it a combined search volume of 482,000 searches per month – more than seven times the average for the books included in the study.
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones is the second most popular self-help book, with an estimated 462,000 searches per month. The #1 New York Times bestseller by James Clear has sold over four million copies and is searched for 719% more than the average self-help book analysed in this study.
In third place is The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. This self-help book has remained popular since its release in 2006, and has since been developed into a film, released in 2020. Byrne’s best-seller has 385,000 searches every month across Amazon and Google.
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene comes in fourth place, with an estimated 258,000 searches per month. This is followed by Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, with 219,000 searches per month.
| Rank | Self-Help Book | Author | Global Monthly Searches | ||
| Amazon | Total | ||||
| 1 | Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! | Robert Kiyosaki | 72,000 | 410,000 | 482,000 |
| 2 | Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones | James Clear | 46,000 | 416,000 | 462,000 |
| 3 | The Secret | Rhonda Byrne | 46,000 | 339,000 | 385,000 |
| 4 | The 48 Laws of Power | Robert Greene | 16,000 | 242,000 | 258,000 |
| 5 | Think and Grow Rich | Napoleon Hill | 39,000 | 180,000 | 219,000 |
| 6 | The Four Agreements: Practical Guide to Personal Freedom | Don Miguel Ruiz | 13,000 | 125,000 | 138,000 |
| 7 | 12 Rules for Life | Jordan Peterson | 27,000 | 102,000 | 129,000 |
| 8 | The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | Stephen Covey | 27,000 | 96,000 | 123,000 |
| 9 | Who Moved My Cheese: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life | Spencer Johnson | 9,200 | 63,000 | 72,200 |
| 10 | You are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life | Jen Sincero | 24,000 | 27,000 | 51,000 |
A spokesperson for Typing.com commented on the findings of the study:
“It is interesting to see that the most searched for self-help books tackle a range of subjects from financial freedom, to developing a growth mindset. Even though four out of the top ten books were published in the 1990s, they are still getting hundreds of thousands of searches every month.
“As the world is better learning how to recognise poor mental health, many are searching for a way to improve their mindset and live a happier life, and self-help books remain a popular way to achieve this.”
The research was carried out by Typing.com, which provides free online typing courses and educational tools for students and professionals worldwide.
Further information can be found at https://www.typing.com/
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