Data story · ratings by genre
Which genre has the highest-rated audiobooks? Fantasy, at 4.10★
Fantasy readers rate their books 4.10★ on average — 0.17 points above romance at the bottom of the table. Here is how every genre scores, and what share of each shelf clears 4★.
Averaging listener ratings across every genre shelf in our dataset, fantasy comes out on top at 4.10★ and romance sits last at 3.93★. The spread is modest — 0.17 points — so the sharper signal is the share of each shelf rated 4★ or higher:
The share that clears 4★
For a baseline: across every rated book in the dataset regardless of genre, the average is 4.00★ and 55% clear 4★. Genres above those numbers are genuinely out-rating the field, not just riding a generous scale.
The full table
| Genre | Rated books | Avg rating | Rated 4★+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fantasy | 869 | 4.10★ | 66% |
| Romantasy | 121 | 4.07★ | 61% |
| Mystery | 396 | 4.00★ | 54% |
| Thriller | 411 | 3.93★ | 47% |
| Romance | 823 | 3.93★ | 47% |
Fantasy is rated highest — test it
66% of the fantasy shelf rates 4★ or better, and the audiobooks.com free trial includes one of them in full. Cancel anytime; the trial stays free.
Start the free trialMethodology.Genre pools use full genre membership (a book cross-tagged romance + fantasy counts in both); ratings are Open Library listener ratings; books without a rating are excluded. Dataset: 2,000 audiobooks measured by The Books Insider as of 2026-07-06. Listening hours are estimated from page counts (pages × 275 words ÷ 9,300 words/hour, ±10%) — full method on the About page.