Overdrive is the most popular company in the world that powers your local libraries’ digital collection of audiobooks and ebooks. Reader demand for ebooks, audiobooks, digital magazines and streaming video drives library lending to grow by 19 percent in 2023. Readers worldwide borrowed 662 million ebooks, audiobooks and digital magazines. This data stems from over 92,000 libraries and schools in 115 countries worldwide.
2023 also marked the award-winning Libby app’s one billionth digital book checkout. Due to the outreach efforts of 22,000 public libraries around the globe, more than 9 million people installed the Libby app in 2023. They became new library users, signalling the continued expansion of library services inside and outside the branch. In addition, bestselling new titles like Spare, Verity, Lessons in Chemistry, Fourth Wing, Libby’s new Notify Me tag feature and the growing popularity of digital magazines fuelled the record digital checkouts.
2023 digital lending records from the OverDrive global network
- Total digital checkouts from libraries and schools: 662 million (+19% over 2022)
- Ebooks borrowed: 370 million (+12%)
- Audiobooks borrowed: 235 million (+23%)
- Magazines borrowed: 56 million (+75%)
- Comics and graphic novels: 37 million (+14%)
- Ebook and audiobook hold/waitlisted: 253 million (+19%)
- Public library systems achieving more than 1 million digital book checkouts: 152 public library systems in seven countries (+13%)
- Includes one system with over 12 million digital book checkouts, one with over 11 million and 73 other systems with over 2 million checkouts (full list available soon).
- Libby app checkouts grew 17 percent, and millions of first-time users installed the app (+22%)
- OverDrive’s Marketplace also experienced a record year
- More than 600,000 new titles added to the OverDrive catalogue (+12%)
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
