Kobo e-reader sales are exploding in the US

The CEO of Kobo (or Rakuten Kobo, to use the full name) has just told Publishers Weekly that sales of its e-readers are rising sharply for the second year in a row in the US.

For the past few months, Best Buy stores in the US have started selling Kobo e-readers alongside Kindles.

This is not a first, since the brand’s e-readers were available at another large retailer, Walmart, until 2024, before disappearing from its shelves.

The most interesting part of the article is still the statements from the CEO of Rakuten Kobo, Michael Tamblyn, who announces that Kobo e-reader sales in the US doubled in 2025 and 2026, before Kobo’s arrival at Best Buy.

For Michael Tamblyn, the explanation comes down to several points:

• Kobo launched color e-readers in 2024, well before Amazon,
• E-readers are increasingly present on social media, with the XTEINK which has become more or less viral,
• Readers have gotten used to e-readers and are less hesitant to buy one,
• People reportedly trust Amazon less.

Michael Tamblyn also stresses one important point: in the US it is very easy to use a Kobo e-reader to borrow a book from your public library. The integration is simple and requires little handling from the user, which is a plus compared to the competition.

There is also a point to note about Europe. The CEO of Kobo explains that in Germany, Kobo holds about 40% market share (in collaboration with Tolino) and Amazon 45%. I guess the rest is shared between Pocketbook and other smaller, more confidential brands like Bigme or Boox…

But above all, Kobo is the leader in ebook (digital book) sales in the US and the UK, which is a very good performance, especially against a giant like Amazon and its Kindle brand.

On the innovation side, Michael Tamblyn presents digital notebooks, such as the reMarkable, the Kindle Scribe or the Kobo Elipsa, as the fastest growing category for Kobo.

This information tends to confirm that a replacement for the Kobo Elipsa 2E is being prepared for the end of 2026 or for 2027.

We also note that users of an e-reader with a stylus read on average many more non-fiction books than users of simple e-readers.

Full article: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/101053-rakuten-kobo-re-enters-u-s-retail-as-sales-double.html