Best-Selling Christian Books of All Time: The Top 12 Ranked

Leave the Bible aside, which Guinness World Records puts at an estimated 5 to 7 billion copies, and the best-selling Christian books of all time are led by C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia (more than 100 million copies), the Left Behind novels (65 to 80 million) and two modern devotional giants, The Purpose Driven Life and Jesus Calling, each reported at more than 50 million. Jesus Calling is the newest name at that level: its publisher announced the 50 million milestone in January 2026.

Book sales are much harder to rank than box office or streaming, because nobody counts every copy. Below is our top 12, the source and caveat behind each number, the classics that are too old to measure, and how to read a sales claim before you repeat it.

How we ranked these books

There is no official chart for lifetime book sales. Publishers announce milestones, older figures come from historians and newspapers, and some numbers are copies printed or distributed rather than sold. So we used three rules:

• Christian content or worldview. Books written to teach, encourage or tell a story from a Christian point of view. Tolkien's Middle-earth books are left out because they are not presented as Christian books, even though Tolkien was a devout Catholic.
• The most credible documented figure, not the most generous one. Where sources disagree we show the range and rank on the better-supported number.
• Series are marked as series. A seven-book set and a single title are not the same thing, so we say which is which.

The top 12 best-selling Christian books

1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (1950 to 1956, series of seven): more than 100 million copies in 47 languages, with some estimates near 120 million. It is Lewis's best-selling work and has been in print continuously since 1956. The first book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is the best known on its own.
2. Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (1995 to 2007, 16-book series): about 65 million copies by 2016 by one count, and more than 80 million including spin-offs according to its publisher, Tyndale House. Several volumes reached No. 1 on The New York Times list, and book 10 debuted there.
3. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren (2002): more than 50 million copies in all formats, according to Warren's ministry. It had sold over 18 million by 2008 and has long been promoted as one of the best-selling hardback books in US history.
4. Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (2004): more than 50 million copies across the Jesus Calling brand in over 35 languages, HarperCollins Christian Publishing said on January 29, 2026. That total includes the children's and themed editions, so the single original title is lower, but it still sells millions of copies a year.
5. In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon (1896): estimates run from more than 8 million (Encyclopaedia Britannica) to over 30 million in other accounts. Its copyright was flawed from the start, so dozens of publishers printed it and nobody kept a total. The book's question, "What would Jesus do?", later became the WWJD bracelet slogan.
6. Steps to Christ by Ellen G. White (1892): printed in about 160 languages. Totals of tens of millions are often quoted, but much of its circulation came through Seventh-day Adventist distribution rather than retail sales, which is why we rank it below the titles with clearer sales data.
7. The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey (1970): more than 28 million copies in 54 languages. It was the best-selling non-fiction book of the 1970s in the US and the first prophecy book from a mainstream publisher to sell on that scale.
8. The Shack by William Paul Young (2007): more than 10 million copies by 2009, when it received the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Diamond award, and over 20 million in later reports. It began as a self-published novel printed for friends and family.
9. The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman (1992): more than 20 million copies worldwide, translated into about 50 languages. Chapman is a Baptist pastor and the book grew out of his counselling work; it had spent 297 weeks on the New York Times list by 2013.
10. Heaven Is for Real by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent (2010): more than 10 million copies, reaching the ECPA Diamond award in 2014. The 2014 film version earned $91.4 million at the US box office.
11. The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson (2000): about 8 million copies in its first year alone, which made it the best-selling non-fiction book of 2001, and past 10 million by 2008.
12. More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell (1977): more than 10 million copies, according to a widely cited Christian literary agency list. The short apologetics book has been handed out by churches and campus groups for almost 50 years.

Honourable mentions

• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace (1880): by many accounts the best-selling American novel of the 19th century, though lifetime totals are disputed.
• The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale (1952): more than 5 million copies and 186 weeks on the New York Times list. Peale was a minister, but the book reads more like self-help than Christian teaching.
• The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (early 1300s): a Christian epic that still sells steadily in many translations, but with no meaningful lifetime total.

The classics too old to count

Several books have almost certainly outsold everything above, but no reliable total exists, so ranking them next to modern titles would be guesswork:

• The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1678). Translated into more than 200 languages and never out of print in nearly 350 years.
• The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis (around 1418). Often described as the most widely read Christian book after the Bible.
• Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe (1563) and the Book of Common Prayer (first edition 1549), both printed in countless editions for centuries.

Any figure you see for these, from 100 million to 250 million, is an estimate built on other estimates.

How to read a book sales claim

Like the music and film charts, a book number is only as good as its source. Before quoting one, check four things:

• Sold, printed or distributed? "Copies in print" counts what the publisher printed, not what readers bought. Church giveaway books can reach huge totals without being sold at all.
• One title or a brand? Jesus Calling and Left Behind totals include spin-offs, editions for children and study guides. That is fair to report, but it is not one book.
• Who measured it? Publisher announcements are usually rounded milestones. Point-of-sale data such as Circana BookScan only covers stores that report, and only since the early 2000s, so it misses older sales.
• Which awards back it up? The ECPA gives sales awards to Christian titles; its Diamond award marks 10 million copies, which is a useful independent checkpoint for books like The Shack and Heaven Is for Real.

The same thinking helps with other rankings on this site. Our explainer on how Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart works covers song charts, and the list of the highest-grossing Christian movies shows how several of these books, including Narnia, Heaven Is for Real and The Shack, did when they reached the big screen.

What the best sellers have in common

They are easy to give

Devotionals like Jesus Calling, short apologetics like More Than a Carpenter and relationship books like The 5 Love Languages are bought in bulk by churches and given as gifts. A book that people buy for someone else can sell for decades.

They work outside church walls

Narnia, The Shack and Left Behind are stories first. Readers who would never pick up a theology book read them as novels, which is how they reached general bestseller lists and then film adaptations.

They meet a moment

The Late Great Planet Earth caught the 1970s interest in prophecy, The Prayer of Jabez spread through churches in 2000 and 2001, and The Purpose Driven Life arrived with a 40-day church campaign that turned whole congregations into buyers.

Awards are another way to follow which Christian books, songs and films are connecting right now: see our guide to the main gospel and Christian music awards and the 2026 Dove Award winners.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best-selling Christian book of all time?

The Bible, at an estimated 5 to 7 billion copies according to Guinness World Records. After the Bible, The Chronicles of Narnia is the best-documented best seller with more than 100 million copies, while The Purpose Driven Life is among the best-selling single non-fiction titles.

Has Jesus Calling sold 50 million copies?

The Jesus Calling brand passed 50 million copies worldwide, HarperCollins Christian Publishing announced in January 2026. That figure covers the whole family of Jesus Calling books, not only the original 2004 devotional.

Is Pilgrim's Progress the second best-selling book after the Bible?

It is often described that way, and it has been translated into more than 200 languages, but no reliable sales total exists for a book first published in 1678. Treat any exact figure with caution.

More rankings and explainers are on the ChristianRanks blog.

Sources: Guinness World Records via Wikipedia, List of best-selling books; HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Jesus Calling brand surpasses 50 million copies (January 29, 2026); Purpose Driven, About Pastor Rick; NPR, Tim LaHaye obituary (2016); Encyclopaedia Britannica, In His Steps; 5 Love Languages; Wikipedia entries for The Chronicles of Narnia, The Late Great Planet Earth, The Shack, Steps to Christ, The Prayer of Jabez and The Pilgrim's Progress; The Steve Laube Agency, The best-selling Christian books of all time. Checked October 26, 2026.