Closing the Bible Engagement Gap
According to a December 2024 article in The Wall Street Journal, 2024 was a banner year for Bible sales with a 22% increase over the previous year. Also on the rise was the number of Bible app downloads. YouVersion’s family of free apps had a record 132 million installations on new devices in 2024, putting it on track to surpass 1 billion cumulative installs in 2025. In fact, the first Sunday in 2025 brought a record number of downloads for the main YouVersion Bible App. Almost 800,000 people installed it on January 5, breaking a record from the first Sunday of 2024.
Yet several studies show that people were spending less time interacting with and reading God’s Word on a regular basis last year. This begs the question: If physical Bibles are flying off the shelves and Bible apps are being downloaded in record numbers, then why aren’t people engaging with their Bibles more? And what can church leaders do about it?
The Bible Boom
One possible reason for the rise in Bible sales is this variety and the wide selection available. If a person were to do a quick search for Bibles on Amazon, or Bible apps in the App Store, or Bible podcasts on Spotify, they will likely find multiple options of interest.
The Bible is being repackaged in different ways to reach different audiences. Large mainstays like B&H Publishing, Crossway, Thomas Nelson, Tyndale and Zondervan are still leading the way, but they have been joined in recent years by a number of smaller publishers that have entered the market with new editions in a wide array of translations and styles.
Consider Humble Lamb, a small, family-run company in Kentucky that was founded in 2017 when they launched their first Bible on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. Humble Lamb exclusively publishes goatskin-bound Bibles with high-quality paper that feature distinctive typefaces, artwork and color combinations. Each Bible costs about $200, but according to company founder Daniel Arroyo, the company has seen an increase in sales every single year that they have been in business.
Premium Bibles have certainly helped drive up the overall number of sales, including those printed by boutique publishers such as Schuyler Bible Publishers. This company’s offerings are printed in The Netherlands with paper milled in France and covers made in Germany.
This trend toward high-quality Bibles has led several major U.S. publishers to develop their own lines of heirloom-quality Bibles. B&H, whose Holman Bibles imprint serves as the primary publisher of the Christian Standard Bible (CSB), launched the Holman Handcrafted Collection in 2021.
Holman also offers premium CSB Bibles in traditional formats, but their bestselling Bible is a collaboration with She Reads Truth, which has sold more than 1 million copies since it was first published in 2017. Last year, Holman released such distinctive editions as the CSB Oswald Chambers Bible (which pairs the CSB with the full text of My Utmost for His Highest as well as other writing from Chambers), and the CSB Grace Bible in versions for adults and children, which features an innovative typeface designed to enhance readability for people with dyslexia.
Another unique offering is coming in August 2025 from Zondervan. The NIV Clear Focus Bible with Bionic Reading® enables readers to read more and with greater comprehension. Developed by Swiss scientists, Bionic Reading bolds the portion of each word most critical for comprehension and guides the eye from word to word over the text.
The Bibles mentioned above represent but a fraction of what is currently available for readers. There are journaling Bibles, devotional Bibles, chronological Bibles, preaching Bibles, large print Bibles, compact Bibles, not to mention Scripture portions and the many Spanish language Bibles available. They are available in various sizes with different types of covers, some with two columns, others with one. The list goes on and on, and new editions hit the shelves every month. There’s literally never been a better time to recommend a new physical Bible to churchgoers.
“A recent study by Lifeway Research revealed that 57% of Protestant churchgoers find it challenging to understand the Bible when they read it on their own.”
Some people attribute the upsurge in physical Bible sales to a growing digital fatigue from all the time we spend on our devices. However, last year also saw an increase in digital Bible resources. And people aren’t just reading the Bible; they’re listening to it as well. Studies show that podcast and audiobook listenership has seen steady growth in recent years, and there are no signs that it will slow down.
“It’s a really exciting time for audio content,” says Jonathan Bailey, co-founder of Dwell, an audio Bible app that launched in 2018 with the goal of helping people discover the power of listening to the Bible.
Dwell’s elegantly designed user interface includes curated playlists, daily devotions, prayer guides, Bible-in-a-year listening plans, and more. The company saw a 150% year-over-year increase in installs of its app in 2024.
