An entire generation of BookTok bait authors now has a new list to hit.
For nearly a century, authors saying they hit “the list” meant they’d made it onto The New York Times‘ weekly bestseller rankings. But now TikTok is doing its own list.
Per The Bookseller, BookTok’s official monthly bestseller list will use two metrics to determine which titles are the internet’s current darlings. First, it’ll use NielsenIQ BookData to look at verified sales data–a method that follows how giants like the Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and more come up with their own bestseller lists.
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Then, key to this whole endeavor, TikTok (and its partner Media Control) will look at overall reader/fan engagement across its platform. Raw sales won’t be enough: If the buzz isn’t big enough, the book won’t make the list.
TikTok tested BookTok charts in Germany in 2023, and expanded them to Austra and Switzerland in 2024. Now it’s releasing its first U.K. list, and perhaps in short order we’ll see a U.S. list.
That being said, the first U.K. list doesn’t look too different from what U.S. readers are binging right now.
Topping the first official U.K. BookTok chart is Heated Rivalry, the Rachel Reid m/m hockey romance that’s had online fandom in a chokehold since Crave dropped its TV adaptation last November. The series’ cast and crew are already gearing up for season 2, with the showrunner teasing a “much more serious” plot that’ll have our star-crossed hockey team captains in dire straits (no pun intended).
Other expected list-hitters are a whopping six books from Chloe Walsh, who writes tense, fraught romances; two titles from Sarah J. Maas and her extremely popular series A Court of Thorns and Roses; SenLinYu‘s Alchemised, a Draco/Hermione fanfic with the serial numbers scrubbed off; Freida McFadden‘s The Housemaid, which also just got a screen adaptation; and last up Colleen Hoover‘s It Ends With Us. We won’t get into that.
On top of publishing this list, TikTok is launching a program called the “World’s Biggest Book Club,” which will host IRL BookTok-inspired events plus different activities within the TikTok app.
It’s also partnering with the U.K.’s National Year of Reading 2026, which Dominic Burns, TikTok U.K.’s Head of Operations, said is a chance for TikTok to “inspired communities across the U.K. to rediscover the joy of books.”
“Since TikTok’s inception, #BookTok has grown into a vibrant global community that has not only shaped the literary conversation but has fuelled bestsellers and brought a new generation back into local bookshops,” he added. “To celebrate this milestone year, we’re inviting everyone to join the World’s Biggest Book Club on TikTok, bringing readers together through unique online and in-person moments, to share the stories they love.”
Here’s BookTok’s full first list:
1. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
2. Taming 7 by Chloe Walsh
3. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas
4. Keeping 13 by Chloe Walsh
5. Saving 6 by Chloe Walsh
6. Verity by Colleen Hoover
7. Releasing 10 by Chloe Walsh
8. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
9. Redeeming 6 by Chloe Walsh
10. Alchemised by SenLinYu
11. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
12. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
13. Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh
14. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
15. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, Sawyer Robbins
16. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
17. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas
18. The Night Prince by Lauren Palphreyman
19. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
20. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
