The best audiobooks over 20 hours, ranked by the data

Ranked by weighted listener rating, the best audiobook over 20 hours in our dataset is Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson — 4.69★ across 89 ratings and 32.2 estimated listening hours. We scored every published audiobook over 20 hours: 54 qualify — the ones with full pages here, of 140 we measured — carrying 6,603 listener ratings between them. The top 15 are below. No opinions: the formula in the method note decides the order.

54books qualify

6,603listener ratings behind the list

27.6avg hours (est.)

The top 15

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
32.2 hrs est. · 4.69★ · 89 ratings · weighted score 4.46
About 33 days at an hour a day — 162% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
22.5 hrs est. · 4.58★ · 120 ratings · weighted score 4.43
About 23 days at an hour a day — 83% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
29.8 hrs est. · 4.54★ · 155 ratings · weighted score 4.42
About 30 days at an hour a day — 142% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
36.8 hrs est. · 4.53★ · 88 ratings · weighted score 4.36
About 37 days at an hour a day — 199% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Complete Harry Potter Collection (Books 1-7) by J. K. Rowling
101.8 hrs est. · 4.60★ · 48 ratings · weighted score 4.32
About 102 days at an hour a day — 728% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
35.3 hrs est. · 4.44★ · 112 ratings · weighted score 4.32
About 36 days at an hour a day — 187% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
29.3 hrs est. · 4.44★ · 108 ratings · weighted score 4.32
About 30 days at an hour a day — 138% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
23.2 hrs est. · 4.41★ · 135 ratings · weighted score 4.31
About 24 days at an hour a day — 89% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
24.1 hrs est. · 4.41★ · 104 ratings · weighted score 4.30
About 25 days at an hour a day — 96% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
29.8 hrs est. · 4.36★ · 161 ratings · weighted score 4.29
About 30 days at an hour a day — 142% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
21.8 hrs est. · 4.33★ · 254 ratings · weighted score 4.28
About 22 days at an hour a day — 77% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
33.2 hrs est. · 4.51★ · 47 ratings · weighted score 4.28
About 34 days at an hour a day — 265% longer than the average mystery audiobook.
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
22.5 hrs est. · 4.32★ · 188 ratings · weighted score 4.26
About 23 days at an hour a day — 83% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
20.8 hrs est. · 4.27★ · 411 ratings · weighted score 4.25
About 21 days at an hour a day — 69% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.
Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
33.6 hrs est. · 4.43★ · 44 ratings · weighted score 4.23
About 34 days at an hour a day — 173% longer than the average fantasy audiobook.

How this ranking works

Every published audiobook over 20 hours qualifies — 54 books. Each is scored by its Open Library listener rating weighted by its rating count — score = (v·R + 50·C) ÷ (v + 50), where R is the book's rating, v its number of ratings, and C = 4.06★ the mean across all 500 published books we measured. Fewer ratings pull a score toward that mean, so a high rating on a handful of votes can't outrank a slightly lower one backed by hundreds. No editorial picks, no sponsored placement. Dataset build 2026-07-06; rankings recompute with every data refresh. Full methodology

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