The American daily newspaper The New York Times publishes multiple weekly lists ranking the best-selling books in the United States. The lists are split in three genres—fiction, nonfiction and children's books. Both the fiction and nonfiction lists are further split into multiple lists.
The following list ranks the number-one best-selling fiction books, in the combined print and e-books category.[1]
The most frequent weekly best seller of the year was The President Is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton with 6 weeks at the top of the list, followed closely by The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah with 4 weeks.
| Date | Book | Author | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 7 | Origin | Dan Brown | |
| January 14 | The People vs. Alex Cross | James Patterson | |
| January 21 | The Woman in the Window | A. J. Finn | |
| January 28 | |||
| February 4 | City of Endless Night | Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child | |
| February 11 | Judgment Road | Christine Feehan | |
| February 18 | Dark in Death | J.D. Robb | |
| February 25 | The Great Alone | Kristin Hannah | |
| March 4 | |||
| March 11 | |||
| March 18 | |||
| March 25 | Burn Bright | Patricia Briggs | |
| April 1 | The Rising Sea | Clive Cussler and Graham Brown | |
| April 8 | Accidental Heroes | Danielle Steel | |
| April 15 | The Disappeared | C. J. Box | |
| April 22 | Ready Player One | Ernest Cline | |
| April 29 | The Thief | J. R. Ward | |
| May 6 | The Fallen | David Baldacci | |
| May 13 | Twisted Prey | John Sandford | |
| May 20 | The 17th Suspect | James Patterson and Maxine Paetro | |
| May 27 | |||
| June 3 | The Cast | Danielle Steel | |
| June 10 | The Outsider | Stephen King | |
| June 17 | Shelter in Place | Nora Roberts | |
| June 24 | The President Is Missing | James Patterson and Bill Clinton | |
| July 1 | |||
| July 8 | |||
| July 15 | |||
| July 22 | |||
| July 29 | |||
| August 5 | The Other Woman | Daniel Silva | |
| August 12 | Origin | Dan Brown | |
| August 19 | |||
| August 26 | Tailspin | Sandra Brown | |
| September 2 | Crazy Rich Asians | Kevin Kwan | |
| September 9 | |||
| September 16 | |||
| September 23 | Leverage In Death | J. D. Robb | |
| September 30 | Juror #3 | James Patterson and Nancy Allen | |
| October 7 | Lethal White | Robert Galbraith | |
| October 14 | Vince Flynn: Red War | Kyle Mills | |
| October 21 | A Spark Of Light | Jodi Picoult | |
| October 28 | Holy Ghost | John Sandford | |
| November 4 | Every Breath | Nicholas Sparks | |
| November 11 | The Reckoning | John Grisham | |
| November 18 | Dark Sacred Night | Michael Connelly | |
| November 25 | Past Tense | Lee Child | |
| December 2 | Look Alive Twenty-Five | Janet Evanovich | |
| December 9 | Fire and Blood | George R. R. Martin | |
| December 16 | Kingdom of the Blind | Louise Penny | |
| December 23 | Of Blood and Bone | Nora Roberts | |
| December 30 | The Reckoning | John Grisham |
The following list ranks the number-one best-selling nonfiction books, in the combined print and e-books category.[2] The most frequent weekly best seller of the year was Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff with seven weeks at the top of the list followed by Becoming by Michelle Obama with five weeks at the top of the list; this book continued to be a best seller in 2019.