Kobo US sales have reportedly doubled in both 2025 and 2026, with the Rakuten-owned e-reader maker now saying roughly seven out of ten of its American buyers are women. That is not a rounding error — it is a full-blown shift in who reads on what, and why.
Key Takeaways
- Kobo US sales have doubled year-on-year in both 2025 and 2026, according to figures shared by the company.
- Around 70% of Kobo’s US customer base is now female, driven heavily by the BookTok reading boom.
- Direct library lending, open EPUB support and no Amazon lock-in are the practical reasons readers are switching.
- Accessibility is where the story gets complicated — Kobo is genuinely good for low-vision readers, but still weak for blind users who need a proper screen reader.
Why Are Kobo US Sales Suddenly Doubling in 2025 and 2026?
For most of the last decade, Kobo was the e-reader nobody in America talked about. It sold fine in Canada, did solid business in parts of Europe, and quietly existed as “the other Kindle” for the rare reader who cared about open file formats. That has changed. Kobo US sales figures for both 2025 and 2026 have doubled compared to the year before, and the company points to a very specific audience for that growth.
It is not new hardware alone. Kobo’s Clara, Libra and Elipsa lines have been solid for a while — nice screens, physical page-turn buttons on some models, decent battery life. What changed is the reading culture around them, and that shift traces back almost entirely to one place: TikTok.
The BookTok Effect on Kobo US Sales
BookTok — the corner of TikTok where readers film themselves crying over a romance novel or ranking a fantasy series — has been credited with reviving physical book sales across the US for a few years now. What’s newer is how much of that energy has spilled over into e-reader shopping. Readers who devour four or five books a month found that buying every one in paperback got expensive and heavy fast. An e-reader solved that, and a chunk of them picked Kobo over Kindle specifically because it doesn’t force them into Amazon’s ecosystem.
That single detail — no Amazon account required — turns out to matter a lot to a demographic that increasingly buys from independent bookstores, uses Rakuten Kobo’s own storefront, or borrows almost everything from the library instead.
Why Is 70% of Kobo’s US Customer Base Female?
Romance and fantasy — the two genres BookTok runs on — skew heavily female in readership, and that has translated directly into device sales. Kobo leaned into this rather than fighting it, striking partnerships with romance-focused publishers and pushing Kobo Plus, its subscription reading service, toward exactly the readers already active in that community.
It’s worth being blunt about this: a 70% female customer base isn’t an accident of good marketing. It’s what happens when a company notices where a boom is actually happening — TikTok’s romance and dark-romance readers — and builds its catalogue and promotions around that group instead of chasing a broader, vaguer audience.
What’s Actually Pulling Readers Away From Kindle?
Three practical reasons keep coming up when you ask Kobo converts why they switched, and none of them are about brand loyalty to Rakuten.
- Native library lending: Kobo devices connect directly to OverDrive and Libby, so borrowing a library ebook takes a couple of taps — no emailing files to yourself, no sideloading.
- Open file formats: Kobo reads EPUB natively, which means books bought from smaller retailers or received as review copies just work, instead of needing conversion.
- No ecosystem lock-in: Buying a Kobo doesn’t chain you to one storefront the way a Kindle nudges you toward Amazon’s Kindle Store.
| Feature | Kobo (current lineup) | Kindle (current lineup) |
| Library lending | Built-in, via OverDrive/Libby | Available but more roundabout |
| File format | Native EPUB | Native AZW/KFX, EPUB via conversion |
| Store lock-in | None required | Amazon account effectively required |
| Dyslexia-friendly font | Yes, built-in | Limited |
| Screen-reader mode for blind users | Not really present | VoiceView, on select models |
I Tested Kobo’s Accessibility Claims Myself — Here’s What Actually Holds Up
I’ve spent years being told a gadget is “accessible” by a press release, only to find the opposite the moment I actually use it. So before writing about Kobo’s growth as some kind of feel-good story, I put a current Kobo Libra through the paces the way I would any device I’m reviewing for daily use, not for a demo stage.
The good news first: for low vision, Kobo is genuinely strong. You can bump font size and weight far beyond what feels reasonable on a phone, switch to a bolder typeface, widen line spacing, and even turn on OpenDyslexic — a font designed to reduce letter confusion for dyslexic readers. None of that is gimmicky. It works the way it’s supposed to, every time, without a settings menu maze.
The honest gap is on the blind-user side. Kobo still doesn’t ship anything close to a proper screen reader for someone who can’t see the page at all. Kindle’s VoiceView, on the models that support it, at least gives blind readers a way to navigate menus and have books read aloud through spoken feedback. Kobo’s text-to-speech, where it exists at all, is inconsistent across titles and nowhere near a substitute for real screen-reader navigation. So the “doubling sales” narrative is real, but it’s a story about a specific reading community finding a better fit — not a story about Kobo solving accessibility broadly. Those are two different achievements, and it’s worth not conflating them.
What Does the Kobo US Sales Surge Mean for Readers in India?
Kobo doesn’t sell directly in India the way Amazon’s Kindle does, which means most Indian buyers still go through import sellers or bring devices back from trips abroad — pricing ends up higher once customs and shipping are added in. That said, the Kobo app itself is available and works fine on Android and iOS, so Indian readers can access Kobo’s catalogue and Kobo Plus without owning the hardware. For the accessibility features specifically — adjustable fonts, OpenDyslexic, EPUB support — the app carries those over, even without the e-ink screen.
Given how much of the current Kobo growth is tied to BookTok’s romance and fantasy wave, and how active that same trend is among young Indian readers on Instagram and TikTok-adjacent platforms, it wouldn’t be surprising to see demand for Kobo devices pick up here too, even without an official India launch yet.
FAQ
What is Kobo, and who owns it?
Kobo is an e-reader and ebook platform owned by Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce company, and it competes directly with Amazon’s Kindle line.
Why have Kobo US sales doubled in 2025 and 2026?
The company attributes the jump mainly to BookTok-driven reading habits, direct library lending support, and readers wanting an e-reader that isn’t tied to an Amazon account.
Is Kobo better than Kindle for library books?
For borrowing, yes — Kobo connects directly to OverDrive and Libby, making library lending noticeably simpler than on most Kindle models.
Does Kobo support accessibility features for visually impaired readers?
For low vision, yes — adjustable fonts, bold text and a dyslexia-friendly font are built in. For blind users needing full screen-reader navigation, Kobo still lags behind Kindle’s VoiceView.
Can I buy a Kobo e-reader in India?
Not through an official Indian store yet — most buyers use import sellers, though the Kobo app is available on Android and iOS in India.
Conclusion
The doubling of Kobo US sales in 2025 and 2026 isn’t a fluke — it’s what happens when a device quietly fits a reading community better than its bigger rival does. Just don’t mistake a sales chart for a finished accessibility story; on that front, Kobo still has real work left to do.