Romantasy, “Sunrise on the Reaping” and Freida McFadden Reigned on Hoopla in 2025

Year-end borrowing data reveals what trends dominated library patrons' reading and streaming habits this year

HOLLAND, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hoopla Digital, the only all-in-one digital media app for public libraries and their patrons, today revealed the top digital media trends shaping library patrons’ borrowing and content consumption behavior in 2025.

Based on circulation figures from library patrons across more than 10,000 U.S. public libraries, Hoopla’s data highlights what digital library content was borrowed the most across a variety of categories and formats – including eBooks, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, music, comics, manga, and BingePasses and SeasonPasses, an offering unique to Hoopla that provides patrons with a full content collection or season of television to binge with just one borrow from the library.

“2025 was another year of growth for Hoopla, with an 11% increase in total content borrows and 80 new library partners,” said Jeff Jankowski, founder of Hoopla Digital. “Patrons stayed loyal to household names and series like “The Hunger Games” as well as audiobooks and kids’ titles while exploring fresh content, trends and authors, especially new and independent authors. Keeping our collection of content diverse and discoverable across formats leads to rich engagement from our users – they can continue to find their favorite titles into 2026 without having to wait long periods of time for them to become available.”

Hoopla has more than 2 million titles across formats including eBooks, audiobooks, music, TV shows, movies, comics, BingePass, SeasonPass and more. All of these titles are available on one platform, most of which can be borrowed instantly with no holds and no waiting. The most popular borrowed eBook and audiobook titles and series of 2025 include:

Audiobooks:

• “Sunrise on the Reaping” - Suzanne Collins
• “The Tenant” - Freida McFadden
• “Fourth Wing (1 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation]” - Rebecca Yarros
• “The Crash” - Freida McFadden
• “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” - J. K. Rowling

eBooks:

• “Don't Believe Everything You Think” - Joseph Nguyen
• “Better Small Talk” - Patrick King
• “Pretty Girls” - Karin Slaughter
• “The Psychology of Money” - Morgan Housel
• “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” - J. K. Rowling

Top eBook and Audiobook Series:

• The Empyrean series
• Harry Potter
• A Court of Thorns and Roses
• The Hunger Games
• The Housemaid

Top Authors:

• Frieda McFadden
• Sarah J. Mass
• Rebecca Yarros
• J.K. Rowling
• Suzanne Collins

“Audiobooks remained patrons’ favorite type of content on Hoopla, increasing 18% year-over-year in borrows in 2025,” said Brad Rose, VP of Content Strategy. “Our data shows that genres like romantasy continued to grow in popularity among patrons, while tried-and-true favorites like thrillers, the Harry Potter series and kids’ content remain in-demand nationwide. This demonstrates why offering a range of titles, genres, formats and authors is so critical for libraries to meet their community’s needs.”

Hoopla is unwavering in its advocacy for public libraries, steadfastly defending the right to read and empowering libraries with access to the full breadth and depth of digital content that their patrons deserve. Below are the most popular titles that are increasingly banned nationwide but are available on Hoopla and were the most borrowed by patrons in 2025.

Top Challenged Titles:

• “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” - J. K. Rowling
• “The Hunger Games” Series - Suzanne Collins
• “A Court of Mist and Fury” - Sarah J. Maas
• “The Handmaid's Tale” - Margaret Atwood
• “Fahrenheit 451” - Ray Bradbury
• “1984” - George Orwell

Streaming content continues to be popular on the Hoopla platform, most notably BingePass and SeasonPass, unique offerings from Hoopla that allow patrons to stream entire content collections or television series for seven days with just one borrow. With more than 100 BingePass and SeasonPass collections available, borrows increased 40% year-over-year – the most of any formats on Hoopla.

The most popular streaming titles borrowed in 2025 include:

BingePasses:

• Hallmark+ BingePass
• The Great Courses BingePass
• Hoopla Magazines BingePass
• Puzzmo BingePass
• Puzzle Palace BingePass
• Curiosity Stream BingePass

Movies:

• “Wicked: The Real Story”
• “Lost on a Mountain in Maine”
• “The Pigeon Finds A Hot Dog!”
• “Someone Like You”
• “Legally Blonde”

TV shows:

• “Interview with the Vampire” - Season 2
• “My Life is Murder” - Seasons 1, 3 and 4
• “Brokenwood Mysteries” - Season 10
• “Death in Paradise” - Season 1
• “Alone” - Season 12

Music Albums:

• “KPop Demon Hunters [Soundtrack from the Netflix Film]” - KPop Demon Hunters Cast
• “The Life of a Showgirl” - Taylor Swift
• “Wicked: The Soundtrack” - Wicked Movie Cast
• “Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)”- Various Artists
• “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” - Chappell Roan

Comics:

• “Invincible: Compendiums One and Two”
• “Smile: A Graphic Novel”
• “Absolute Batman Vol. 1: The Zoo”
• “Dog Man”
• “Big Nate: Attack of the Cheez Funk Breath”

Manga:

• “Berserk” Vols. 1, 3, 4 and 5
• “Attack on Titan Vol. 1”
• “Cat + Gamer Vol. 1”
• “Gannibal Vol. 1”
• “H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories”

“This year’s borrowing data underscores how essential a deep and varied streaming catalog is for libraries and their patrons,” said Cat Zappa, VP of Digital Acquisitions at Hoopla. “By providing a robust collection of content in a variety of formats, libraries can better meet their patrons’ needs with content they know they love – while also giving them the opportunity to explore new content that aligns with their interests or fandom. That’s why expanding our catalog and innovating with new BingePasses is important to us at Hoopla to ensure we’re meeting libraries’ and their patrons’ evolving needs.”

Hoopla is available in more than 11,500 public libraries across the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, including Chicago Public Library, San Francisco Public Library and Los Angeles Public Library. To access content on Hoopla, cardholders of participating libraries can download the free Hoopla mobile app on their Android or iOS device or visit hoopladigital.com.

To access the full list of most borrowed content on Hoopla in 2025, please visit: https://www.hoopladigital.com/collection/most-borrowed-of-2025/177761

*Title availability may vary by library

About Hoopla Digital

With a mission to serve public libraries and their patrons, Hoopla is the only all-in-one app that provides online and mobile access to millions of eBooks, audiobooks, comics and manga, music, movies, TV, and more with BingePass. Available in 115+ world languages, content on Hoopla is available for free with a valid library card. Hoopla is the pioneer of the pay per use model that allows library patrons to borrow content immediately, no waits or holds required. Headquartered in Holland, Ohio, Hoopla is a service of Midwest Tape, a trusted partner to public libraries for over 35 years. For more information, or to download the Hoopla app, visit hoopladigital.com.