There’s a niche that’s been taking off since the beginning of 2026. It’s not brand new in the world of consumer apps, but it did stay quiet for a while.
Now, thanks to TikTok making it trendy, the App Store is flooding with new apps in this space.
Can you guess what it is?
Let’s break down the latest developments in the BookTok and book apps space.
The BookTok Giants
It started with three.
Goodreads, one of the first big book tracking apps, launched back in 2010 (yep, that’s 16 years ago, probably older than some of you). Today, it holds a solid spot at #5 in the Books category on the US App Store and brings in about 700,000 new downloads each month.
Fable launched in 2021 and is currently sitting at #10 in the Books category on the US App Store. Just last month, it brought in 300,000 new downloads and made $200,000 from in-app purchases.
Storygraph, also released in 2021, now sitting a bit below, at #20 in the same category, pulling 200,000 downloads a month and over $50,000 in monthly revenue (in-app only).
At the core, these apps do the same thing: they help people track what they’ve read, write reviews, and get fun insights into their reading habits, pace, and preferences.
But in the last few years, the whole industry took a turn:
The rise of BookTok changed a few things:
- A huge boost in sales, with an average 600% increase when a book is featured in a viral video.
- Reading became cool again for a wider crowd.
- New genres took off, and both well-known and new authors rushed to grow their online presence and connect with readers.
- People start sharing their reading habits and tracking progress, turning a hobby into something more structured (and that you can brag about).
- Ratings, reviews, and recommendations matter more than ever.
All of this opened the door for new players, while the older ones had to double down on distribution or risk losing the spotlight they’d held for years.
The Newcomers
Booktok
Yeah, there’s an app called Booktok. And it’s not just another book tracking app.
It turns out, unsurprisingly, that so many books are popular now that people want to know the stories without actually reading them.
This app, launched in November 2024, lets users “watch books explained” by turning books into AI-generated animations. It’s bringing in $60,000 a month.
On TikTok, they rely fully on one account: @clarawithbooktok. That account pulled in 52 million views with just a few videos, mostly user reaction clips.
One video hit 30 million views, yet not entirely organic. They stopped posting around the end of summer 2025.
You can read the full story here.
Margins
Margins launched at the same time as Booktok — and yes, it is another book tracker app, but with a few added features like “search books by vibe” and a tool to “block social media while reading.”
They’re seeing 200,000 downloads a month and pulling in $6,000 in monthly recurring revenue. Last month, they pushed hard on distribution and are now in the top 100 apps across most countries.
Their network spans across 20 creator accounts, but one has been leading, with 1.6M views recently, @jenna.thomas3.
The flipside is that, despite getting extremely high engagement, these open hooks create the perfect stage for competitors to hijack the comments and promote their own tools. That’s exactly what happened to her biggest hit.
You can read the full story here.
Bookology
Bookology was released just seven months ago and has been hovering around #60 on the App Store. It’s another book tracking app, currently generating $7,000 in monthly recurring revenue.
They’ve gone fully faceless, and it’s working well. Their branded account drives the entire strategy using faceless phone app demos.
The standout feature is the ability to create a virtual TBR (To Be Read) shelf, in true BookTok style. It’s highly visual and distinct, so they don’t need much more than a strong hook and a well-made recording.
So far, this account has collected 2.1M views and engagement keeps rising.
You can read the full story here.
Meanwhile, big players like Fable have started moving too. They’ve teamed up with BookTok creators and tested out a few content formats themselves.
We broke it all down in a piece, including which formats helped them score 23 million views since the end of last year.
We’re expecting a lot more new players to jump into this space, and plenty of clever hacks and micro-strategies from the big names already in the game.
Stay tuned.
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