Murdle vs. The 1% Club: UK Humour & Puzzle Book Sales Trends

Murdle's 2024 sales declined, facing competition from The 1% Club. Overall, the Humour & Puzzle category outperforms Non-Fiction, but faces challenges. Puzzles sub-category remains strong in 2025.

What of Murdle itself: will it be the category’s total bestseller for 2025? As much as the middle of October, Murdle had one hand on the title, having offered 66,776 copies– yet that is down 53.4% compared to the equivalent duration in 2024, and just 7,038 duplicates in advance of second-placed The 1% Club (Bantam). The official tie-in to the Lee Mack-fronted ITV video game program was released at the beginning of November last year, and while Murdle topped the total graph, it was overshadowed in the last 6 weeks of the year by the test publication.

Humour and Puzzles Category Overview

The Humour, Fact and Puzzles group in NielsenIQ BookScan’s Total Customer Market (TCM) has long been a company of wacky stocking-filler publications in the latter part of the year, yet will the Murdle collection remain to be a draw for consumers for a third Xmas in a row?

While the total category is out-performing the rest of not simply Non-Fiction yet the complete TCM in general– volume sales are up 3.6%, with value climbing 1.8%– it is not all great information of late.In 2024, the Humour: Collections and General sub-category videotaped ₤ 8.6 m with BookScan, its worst efficiency because records started, consisting of the lockdown years of 2020 and 2021 with their TCM data black areas.

The Humour, Trivia and Puzzles group in NielsenIQ BookScan’s Complete Customer Market (TCM) has long been a carrier of wacky stocking-filler publications in the latter component of the year, however there is one question that stays unanswered thus far in 2025: Will the Murdle series continue to be a draw for shoppers for a third Christmas in a row?

While the total category is out-performing the rest of not just Non-Fiction but the full TCM generally– volume sales are up 3.6%, with worth increasing 1.8%– it is not all good information of late.In 2024, the Humour: Collections and General sub-category taped ₤ 8.6 m with BookScan, its worst efficiency because documents began, consisting of the lockdown years of 2020 and 2021 with their TCM information black places. This is definitely a turnaround of lot of money as the sub-category had actually generally been the primary vehicle driver of Humour, Fact and Puzzles. Hence much in 2025, Humour: Collections and General completes ₤ 3.1 m, a little behind its performance at this factor in 2024, so it might be in for another record low.

The Rise of ‘The 1% Club’

The initial volume of questions from the quiz program marketed 119,400 duplicates in 2024, worth ₤ 1.1 m (dramatically greater than 1% of the classification’s overall value for the year) and quickly making it the second-bestselling publication in the classification of the year. If the 2nd quantity– as a result of be launched in the same week at the start of November– achieves the very same performance, it will certainly be available in just behind the 122,951 systems that Murdle gets on track to attain, producing a much closer contest this Xmas.

The Wrestler’s Neck Ruby Posting Team, 2nd, ₤ 13.99, 9781916421981 In spite of just being released on second October, The Wrestler’s Neck– the yearly compilation of the very best little bits from the Viz comic– is already the 100th bestselling title in the whole of NielsenIQ’s Humour, Fact and Puzzles category. Sales throughout its first 2 weeks are up by just 9 copies, compared with the very first two weeks of the 2024 version– however with the 2025 instalment published one week previously, it is well on course to defeat in 2014’s total amount of 52,278 units. TCM copies sold: 3,324

Murdle’s Market Impact

Because it was released in June 2023, volume one of the crime-themed reasoning problems from GT Karber, released by Keepsake Press, has actually offered 600,555 duplicates and controlled the sales numbers for the category. In 2023, the group saw sales of ₤ 29.6 m, with ₤ 3.9 m of that originating from the Murdle collection. The collection aided the category grow somewhat to ₤ 29.7 m in 2024, though Murdle’s share of that value dropped a little from 13.2% to 11.7%.

Despite just showing up out there at the very end of the year, The 1% Club accounted for a fifth of the Fact & Test Books sub-category’s total for 2024, which was the best result because documents started– although it would have achieved that TCM record also without its bestseller.

Puzzles Category Performance in 2025

Murdle’s success in 2023 helped take the Puzzles sub-category to its best performance since 2005, and though sales of the series itself dropped slightly in 2024, the sub-category saw general sales climb 0.1%– so the passion in challenges has remained to suffer. Thus far in 2025, the Puzzles classification has gained ₤ 6.8 m– simply over fifty percent of the overall Humour, Trivia and Puzzles of ₤ 12.7 m– a number that by itself would offer it its fifth-best performance given that documents began, and there are still 12 weeks to go in the year. Following the very same pattern as 2024, Puzzles would certainly finish up at ₤ 11.7 m– which, while down 5.9% year on year, would certainly still supply its third-best year to date.

Recurring sales of The 1% Club across 2025 mean that the classification is presently reporting sales of ₤ 1.9 m, which is ₤ 700,000 greater than the first 41 weeks of 2024– so it may well defeat that record once again this year.

Far in 2025, the Puzzles classification has earned ₤ 6.8 m– simply over fifty percent of the total Humour, Trivia and Puzzles of ₤ 12.7 m– a figure that on its own would certainly provide it its fifth-best efficiency because documents began, and there are still 12 weeks to go in the year. Following the same pattern as 2024, Puzzles would certainly finish up at ₤ 11.7 m– which, while down 5.9% year on year, would certainly still deliver its third-best year to day.

The official tie-in to the Lee Mack-fronted ITV game program was released at the beginning of November last year, and while Murdle topped the general chart, it was overshadowed in the last 6 weeks of the year by the test book.