12 top best-selling adult fantasy books of all time

Are you a young, scrappy Hollywood producer looking to make bank with a fantasy blockbuster? In that case, you should know that your film adaptation will only be as good as your source material. So rather than take a chance on a beloved but lesser-known fantasy series (save it for A24), you’ll have to do what Hollywood always does and readapt something relatively non-risky and already popular to protect your bottom line. So here they are, the top 12 best-selling (and adult-oriented) fantasy books of all time—the perfect ammunition to make a cinematic killing.

12. The Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss

A middle-aged man works behind the counter in a small tavern in a nondescript rural town. There’s an adventurous twinkle in the eyes set in that handsome face, lined with the beginnings of age. Little do his patrons know, that man was once called Kvothe, once the greatest hero in all the land. Trained in the musical arts since birth, Kvothe learned to pluck magic from out of the air itself to accomplish many legendary feats, like slaying a dragon, surviving a hookup with a succubus, and possibly killing a king (though his lawyer has advised him not to go into detail about that one). How successful are The Kingkiller Chronicle books? Patrick Rothfuss’ series sold 10 million copies and counting. More than most authors ever see, but small potatoes for this list.

11. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

Brian Sanderon’s Mistborn series has one of the most unique magical systems on this list, which you need to simplify for the focus groups to understand. In the world of Mistborn, some people can perform feats of magic by eating different metals. While chowing down on lead means an emergency room trip for most, a Mistborn can metabolize the metal and use it to do all sorts of fantastic things, which, in the case of the series’ protagonist Vin, is grand larceny. Vin is a street thief who uses his powers to fleece an unscrupulous noble out of his treasure in an Ocean’s 11-style heist with a high fantasy twist. The Hollywood focus groups will love that part. Meanwhile, the studio executives will love that this series has sold 10 million copies so far.

10. Empyrean by Rebecca Yaros

Building off the booming romantasy industry seeded by another spicy entry on this list, Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series is scratching an itch for millions of fantasy buffs. Having sold 12 million copies and counting, Yarros’ series centers around a young woman named Violet Sorrengail, whose dreams of living a quiet, nonlethal existence at Basgiath War College are shattered when her military general mother signs her up to join the dangerous Dragon Riders Quadrant, which concerns itself with doing exactly the terrifying sort of thing the title suggests. She’ll need to overcome her weaknesses (and a few homicidal classmates) to survive and thrive. But hey, at least her squad commander is easy on the eyes. That’s a plus.

9. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Since debuting in 2015, Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses series has had BookTok in a stranglehold. The story revolves around a nineteen-year-old huntress who is captured by a sexy, beast-like faerie man and taken to the fae kingdom of Prythian, where she must survive the ever-shifting political landscapes of faerie high courts. ACOTAR is a textbook example of the thriving “romantasy” genre, a booming half-a-billion-dollar industry. The series has sold 13 million copies so far, and—like the sex drives of its protagonists—doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. As it turns out, our world is full of millions of people who would rather quit their nine-to-fives and spend their lives living in fantasy bliss among hot fae. Who would have thought?

8. Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind

Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series is a classic dude-finds-magic-sword series, which is always a moneymaker. In this case, the dude in question is Richard Cypher, a country bumpkin living in the woods of Westland. The sword in question is the (spoiler alert) Sword of Truth for which the book series is named, which Ricky will employ in his fight against a tyrannical wizard king from a foreign land who is attempting to rule the world with artifacts known as the Boxes of Orden. It sounds like a tall order, but Richard will have the help of two magical companions—a wizard and a woman with the power of persuasion—along with a little assistance from destiny (he is the prophesied Seeker of Truth, after all). What’s the prophecy for this series’ bottom line? Considering it has sold 25 million copies, I’d say that Terry Goodkind’s bank account is solidly in the black.

7. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Diane Gabaldon’s Outlander is the most popular romance fantasy series ever written, selling over 26 million copies—deservedly so. Who among us doesn’t dream of being swept up in the arms of a burly Scottish highland warrior and serving in a rebellion against the British crown? That’s how it happens for former WWII nurse Claire Randall, who is transported back in time after touching a magic rock while on vacation with her husband in Scotland. Transported centuries into the past, she aids a clan of sexy but medically unschooled warriors in their battles against English rule, falling in love with total babe Jamie Fraser in the process. Things only get more complicated when she finds out one of her 40s-era husband’s ancestors is a sadistic officer in the British army, which makes her rethink … well, literally everything. Time travel really has a way of changing your perspective, doesn’t it?

6. The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Stephen King is one of the best-selling authors in the entire world, with his books having sold a whopping 400 million copies in total. His sprawling dark fantasy series The Dark Tower functions as a nexus for the 60+ novels he’s written in his long career, as the fated tower is the central hub of King’s multiverse. It also happens to be the same piece of spooky architecture that the gunslinger knight errant Roland Deschain is questing for. Traveling through wastelands, ruined cities, and alternate dimensions, Roland will stop at nothing in his single-minded pursuit to fulfill his life-long mission, even if that means pulling a group of average people from out of our dimension and training them to be gunslinging warriors to fight by his side.

5. The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Bram Stoker might have popularized the idea of the vampire, but Anne Rice’s sprawling series about bloodsuckers has left an indelible bite mark on pop culture. The series begins with Interview With the Vampire, an oft-adapted novel about a 200-year-old vamp sitting for an interview with an unnamed journalist. The vampire recounts his messy life with the man who turned him, the morally dubious Lestat de Lioncourt, and their surrogate vampire daughter that they raised in Louisiana. Selling over 80 million copies, Interview With the Vampire is one of the most enduring pieces of vampire fiction ever penned, rivaled only by Stephanie Meyer’s tale of dayglowing creatures of the night.

4. Discworld by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is one of the biggest fantasy series ever written, both financially and word count-wise. The series consists of over 40 separate novels, (with 80 million copies sold), each centering around a new cast of characters. The Discworld series is unique for its sardonic tone, making it feel like the high fantasy lovechild of J.R.R. Tolkien and Kurt Vonnegut. The first novel, The Colour of Magic, begins with the tale of the wizard Rincewind, hired to serve as a bodyguard for a traveling insurance agent named Twoflower, who is at best optimistic and at worst woefully naive. Thankfully, Twoflower comes equipped with a guard dog—a man-eating mimic that takes the form of a luggage chest—which is good because everyone in the kingdom wants him assassinated, and Rincewind can only do so much.

3. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

I’m sure your high school social studies teacher taught you that history is doomed to repeat itself, but Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time takes the concept literally. In The Wheel of Time, causality is governed by the endless turning of a great metaphysical wheel, which causes the past to repeat itself in the future in a never-ending cycle. One of history’s favorite ways to repeat itself is by endlessly reincarnating a warrior named The Dragon Reborn, destined to battle against a malevolent entity known as The Dark One. The first novel begins by reintroducing the world to The Dragon Reborn, who this time has taken the shape of a young farm boy named Rand al’Thor, and is convinced by a wandering wizard woman that he is the child of destiny. The subsequent dozen books detailing their quest have sold over 90 million copies and counting.

2. A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R.R Martin

Hailed as the Tolkien of the 21st century, George R.R. Martin has cut deep into popular culture with his series A Song of Ice and Fire. Inspired by a Robert Frost poem (and all of human history) A Song of Ice and Fire is a sprawling epic set in a medieval world somewhat like ours. How is it like our own? Because like many political rulers in Earth’s history, the people that reign over the kingdoms of Martin’s world are just horrible. It’s a series that subverts the idea of nobility and heroism in fantasy, telling a tale of tyrants seeking power for power’s sake, and the underdogs and pariahs attempting to make the best of a hard and cruel existence. Despite being infamously unfinished, this series has sold over 90 million copies.

1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Are you surprised? Elevated to the status of a modern myth, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is the most seminal fantasy story written since Beowulf. Everyone’s seen Peter Jackson’s films, but in case you need a refresher, it’s about a short king’s quest to throw some cursed jewelry into a volcano. This series has sold over 150 million copies and has been adapted into one of the highest-grossing film series of all time.