The Top YA Books On Amazon In 2016: A State-By-State Breakdown

I’m a data nerd. Things that can be counted and explored via number,s especially when it comes to something that’s of an art form, really gets me excited. I know it’s nearly impossible to draw conclusions from data without having run a hefty series of statistical analyses and eliminating all potential confounding factors. But what I do know is: you can discover some interesting connections. So when the opportunity to explore numbers and YA lit presents itself, I find it impossible not to poke around. In this case, I was curious what books published last year were the most popular books sold in each of the 50 United States on Amazon. The data, which I received from Amazon, not only provided a really interesting insight into book sales from last year, but it also provided a glimpse into the best selling 2016 YA books from US territories. Those, I think, might be even more interesting than what will be seen on a state-by-state level. Before diving into the winners, take a moment and guess which titles you might suspect were the most popular last year. The books in this data set were published in 2016, too, so the always-popular books and those which saw big pushes due to adaptations — titles like The Fault in Our Stars and 13 Reasons Why and If I Stay  — aren’t included in this round up. Got your picks? Let’s see if you’ve come close to guessing. Alabama: Liked: Whose Approval Are You Living For? by Kari Kampakis   Alaska: The Last Star by Rick Yancey     Arizona: The Last Star by Rick Yancey Arkansas The Crown by Kiera Cass   California: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Colorado: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Connecticut: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Deleware: The Last Star by Rick Yancey     Florida: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Georgia: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Hawaii: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Idaho: The Crown by Kiera Cass     The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Indiana: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Iowa: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Kansas: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Kentucky: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Louisiana: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Maine: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Maryland: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Massachusetts: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Michigan: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Minnesota: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Mississippi: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Missouri: The Last Star by Rick Yancey     Montana: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Nebraska: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Nevada: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   New Hampshire: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   New Jersey: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   New Mexico: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   New York: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   North Carolina: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   North Dakota: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Ohio: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Oklahoma: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Oregon: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Pennsylvania: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Rhode Island: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   South Carolina: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   South Dakota: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Tennessee: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Texas: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Utah: The Crown by Kiera Cass   Vermont: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Virginia: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   District of Columbia: Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky   Washington: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   West Virginia: The Last Star by Rick Yancey   Wisconsin: The Last Star by Rick Yancey     Wyoming: The Last Star by Rick Yancey So last year’s biggest seller across the 50 states (and the District of Columbia)? The Last Star by Rick Yancey. Runner up was The Crown by Kiera Cass. Both of those books were part of a series and not the beginning entry. The two rogue titles, Liked and Women In Science, are both nonfiction titles and about as different from Yancey and Cass’s books as possible. Let’s not stop there, though. Things become a little more interesting when the US territories and other affiliated locations with US postal codes (i.e., military) are taken into account, as they add a range of very different titles to the mix.     US Armed Forces, America: The Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard US Armed Forces, Europe: The Last Star by Rick Yancey US Armed Forces, Pacific: The Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard Micronesia: The Silent Songbird by Melanie Dickerson Guam: The Last Star by Rick Yancey Northern Mariana Islands: Cracking The AP English Literature and Composition Exam from The Princeton Review Puerto Rico: The Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard Palau: Star Wars Ahsoka by EK Johnston US Virgin Islands: Can I Kiss You? by Michael J Domitrz   So anything catch you by surprise? Are there titles you expected to see but didn’t? I won’t lie: I’m surprised there weren’t more instances of AP study guides or similar books cracking the list. Perhaps the most interesting thing for me is seeing how many of the best sellers here repeated state-by-state…and how many of the books that sold really well last year on other lists didn’t crack the Amazon top seller.