Hoopla’s Year in Review: Hitting Rewind on 2025

It’s been a wild ride, but 2025 is almost over—and before we wrap this year up, let’s hop into our time machine and look back at what was certainly an eventful 12 months in the world of Hoopla.

Starting at the top

Before we get too deep into this, let’s start out with a trivia question: which format do you think was the most borrowed format on Hoopla in 2025? Give it some thought and we’ll give you the answer at the end of this post.

OK, now the big news: Hoopla is thrilled to have welcomed 80 new library partners this year—welcome aboard!

While all our formats were popular, only one stood head and shoulders above the rest when it came to year-over-year growth: BingePass, sparked by the introduction of SeasonPass. SeasonPass delivers entire TV seasons with just one borrow!

The Bonus Borrows program was once again a popular Hoopla feature throughout the year. Bonus Borrows generated more than 1.1 million circulations, with 48% of those being audiobooks. The most popular Bonus Borrows title? That would be the audiobook version of All the Missing Pieces by Catherine Cowles.

It may be when the weather finally starts to warm up, but March was also the month that saw patrons borrowing the most. Meanwhile, the first of each month continues to be the most popular day of the month to borrow—especially since patron borrows reset on that day each month.

Want a deeper dive (and maybe a little extra time to figure out that trivia question)? Here’s a closer look at each of the Hoopla formats:

Audiobooks and eBooks

Romantasy reigned supreme as the most borrowed audiobook and eBook genre on Hoopla this year. With the Empyrean series (Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm) topping Hoopla’s most borrowed series list and Quicksilver hitting Hoopla for the first time in 2025, patrons couldn’t get enough of the hybrid romance-and-fantasy genre.

While dragons and faeries may have ruled the kingdom, “sports romance” also found its way into the top tropes that library patrons loved in 2025—thanks, in part, to the success of indie authors like Piper Rayne and her hockey romance series, Nest. Romance fans were also into the “enemies to lovers” and “forced proximity” tropes.

The latest entry into the Hunger Games canon, Sunrise on the Reaping volunteered as tribute and ended up at the top of the most borrowed audiobooks list, fending off two of Freida McFadden’s newest releases and a classic Harry Potter story:

1. Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins 
2. The Tenant, Freida McFadden 
3. Fourth Wing (1 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation], Rebecca Yarros 
4. The Crash, Freida McFadden 
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J. K. Rowling 

Patrons were on a journey to better themselves this year, as personal development eBooks made an impact. Titles like Don’t Believe Everything You Think, Better Small Talk, and The Psychology of Money, found themselves at—or near—the top of the most borrowed eBooks lists.

1. Don’t Believe Everything You Think, Joseph Nguyen 
2. Better Small Talk, Patrick King 
3. Pretty Girls, Karin Slaughter 
4. The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel 
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J. K. Rowling 

It’s a clean sweep for women on this year’s list of most borrowed audiobook/eBook authors. And while romance kept readers’ and listeners’ attention, mystery and thrillers also had a huge year—helping Freida McFadden to the top spot:

1. Freida McFadden 
2. Sarah J. Maas (ACOTAR series)  
3. Rebecca Yarros (Empyrean series)  
4. J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter series)  
5. Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games series) 

Meanwhile, beloved series—including the Empyrean, Harry Potter, and Hunger Games series—are still popular borrows at libraries. The top five most popular audiobook/eBook series of 2025 include:

1. Empyrean 
2. Harry Potter 
3. Court of Thorns and Roses 
4. The Hunger Games 
5. The Housemaid 

BingePass

While the Hallmark+ BingePass was the most borrowed title on Hoopla, and the growth of edutainment bingeing has pushed The Great Courses BingePass higher up the list, patrons loved their puzzles in 2025. Puzzmo and Puzzle Palace both ascended to the top five most borrowed BingePasses of the year: 

1. Hallmark+ 
2. The Great Courses 
3. Hoopla Magazines 
4. Puzzmo 
5. Puzzle Palace 

Comics  

In 2025, comic borrows were anchored by media tie-ins such as Invincible and Dog Man, as well as the continued growth of kids’ graphic novels like Smile and Big Nate. Here are Hoopla’s top five most borrowed comics:

1. Invincible: Compendium One and Invincible Compendium Two, Robert Kirkman
2. Smile: A Graphic Novel, Raina Telgemeier 
3. Absolute Batman Vol. 1: The Zoo, Scott Snyder 
4. Dog Man, Dav Pilkey 
5. Big Nate: Attack of the Cheez Funk Breath, Lincoln Peirce 

Music

The year in music was dominated by two albums: the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack and, of course, Taylor Swift’s 12^th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. But which came out on top on the list of the top five most borrowed albums on Hoopla?

1. KPop Demon Hunters [Soundtrack from the Netflix Film], KPop Demon Hunters Cast 
2. The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift 
3. Wicked: The Soundtrack, Wicked Movie Cast 
4. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
5. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Chappell Roan

Movies and TV 

Something Wicked came to Hoopla in 2025, as media tie-ins to the theatrical release of Wicked: For Good—including a documentary that topped our most borrowed movies list—conjured up interest with library patrons across multiple formats:

1. Wicked: The Real Story, Stephen Schwartz 
2. Lost on a Mountain in Maine, Luke David Blumm 
3. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!, Mo Willems 
4. Someone Like You, Sarah Fisher 
5. White Chicks, Marlon Wayans  

Meanwhile, patrons’ love of witches spilled over into a love of vampires, as the newest season of Interview with the Vampire topped the list of most borrowed TV shows, with a host of British mysteries not far behind:  

1. Interview with the Vampire – Season 2 
2. My Life Is Murder (Seasons 1, 3, 4) 
3. Brokenwood Mysteries – Season 10 
4. Death in Paradise – Season 1 
5. Doc Martin – Season 10 

Trivia Answer

What was the most popular format on Hoopla this year? That would be the audiobook format—and it wasn’t even close. Audiobooks accounted for more than half of the overall borrows on Hoopla and experienced continued growth that is consistent with the 13% year-over-year increase the audiobook industry saw in 2025.

What’s next?

Stay tuned to see what stories, songs, and so much more Hoopla has in store for 2026!

Download Our Year-in-Review Infographic to Share with Staff

*Title availability varies by library