Goodreads is the go-to platform for book lovers, making the site’s ratings and review systems a treasure trove of data on reading trends. Below are the highest rated books on Goodreads right now and what that says about each one.
Before getting started, there are some things to keep in mind about how this ranking was put together. A threshold for consideration needed to be picked, and we’ve set a high bar here. This list considers only the elite few novels that have over five million star ratings on Goodreads. From there, it ranks them by average star rating. (We’ve gone with a Top 6 because the #1 and #2 slots are occupied by the same monolithic franchise.)
This list also pays attention to the total number of ratings a book has accrued, as its own kind of valuable metric. With that in mind, shout-out to The Great Gatsby, which has 6.5 million ratings, but only a 3.93 star average. And to the first Twilight book, with 7.5 million ratings but only 3.68 stars on average. And to The Fault in Our Stars, with 5.8 million and a solid 4.12 average, which would have been next on this list.
Also worth an honorable mention are some of the best-rated books that came up just short of the five million rating marker. That list includes The Hobbit (4.6 million ratings, 4.30 average), the first Divergent book (4.49 million ratings, 4.13 average), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (4.45 million ratings, 4.39 average), A Court of Thorns and Roses (4.6 million, 4.14 average) and Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us (4.8 million ratings, 4.06 average.)
6
1984
By George Orwell; 4.21 Star Rating
George Orwell’s 1984 is the standard-bearer for dystopian fiction. In the book, originally published in 1948, Orwell channeled all his post-World War II political and social anxieties into his vision of a totalitarian Britain. The novel introduced the idea of “Big Brother,” which is now synonymous with government surveillance and control.
On Goodreads, it has been rated nearly 5.8 million times. 47% of readers gave it a full 5-star rating. 33% gave it four stars. Only 1%, or just over 100,0000 readers, ventured to give this consensus classic a 1-star rating, but a sampling of their written reviews reveals some vehement criticism of 1984. (“I prefer 1989,” one Goodreads user commented, in simultaneously the most concise and most savage review.)
Still, maintaining an average of 4.21 stars across close to six million ratings is a remarkable feat, and it shows that the book’s reputation is largely holding as it approaches its 80th anniversary.
[Get 1984 here in all formats.]
5
To Kill A Mockingbird
By Harper Lee; 4.26 Star Rating
To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best courtroom dramas in literary history. It is among the most beloved American novels of the 20th century. It is a staple of middle school, high school, and college curriculums. All that adds up to one of the most widely read, and voluminously rated, novels of all time.
Harper Lee’s 1960 novel has been rated over seven million times. Almost 3.7 million of those, or 51%, are 5-star ratings. Mockingbird has 2.1 million 4-star ratings, and just shy of one million 3-stars. Meaning the naysayers make up less than 5% of To Kill a Mockingbird’s share of readers registered on Goodreads.
Praise for Lee’s book remains effusive. To Kill a Mockingbird continues to mean a lot to legions of readers, of all ages. And because it is so commonly read by school students before they’re ready for it, the novel has become one of the most frequently returned to by adult readers, who belatedly realize its brilliance.
[To Kill a Mockingbird is available here.]
4
Pride And Prejudice
By Jane Austen; 4.30 Star Rating
Pride and Prejudice is the oldest book to crack five million ratings on Goodreads. (It is just over the threshold, too, to the tune of 21,244 ratings and counting.) Still, Jane Austen’s novel might have been published 213 years ago, but remains among the most recognizable titles in literary history, and a must-read for all students and fans of English literature.
Its 4.3-star average speaks to the fact that Pride and Prejudice is also still an engaging, enjoyable read. For the majority of readers, anyway. 55% 5-star ratings, 27% 4-stars, 11% 3-stars. 5% 2-stars or less. Top reviewers repeatedly cite it as an all-time favorite, while bottom-of-the-barrel critiques say it doesn’t deserve its lauded legacy.
But what does a 3-star review of Pride and Prejudice look like? Some users apologize for not liking it more, while others blame the hype around the book for setting greatness expectations it couldn’t match for them. The consensus, even from these readers, is that Pride and Prejudice is worth reading, if not a masterpiece for them, personally.
[Get Pride and Prejudice in all formats here.]
3
The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins; 4.36 Star Rating
The Hunger Games, the first installment in Suzanne Collins’ dystopian series of the same name, has the second-highest number of ratings on Goodreads. Over ten million. Like Pride and Prejudice, 55% of readers have given The Hunger Games a 5-star rating. That said, Hunger Games has more 5-star ratings than Pride and Prejudice has in total.
30% of readers, or just over three million, have rated Collins’ novel 4 stars. Critical reviews of The Hunger Games, which amount to a minority stake of Goodreaders reviewers, mostly boiling down to not getting it. Not getting the premise of the novel, or the genre, or that it is technically YA, or that it is the start of an ongoing series.
Those reviews bring down The Hunger Games‘ overall star rating just enough to keep it out of the #2 or #1 spots on this power ranking, but the book is still a ratings juggernaut and a phenomenon with few equals.
[The Hunger Games and its sequels are available in all formats here.]
2
Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone
By J.K. Rowling; 4.47 Star Rating
The first Harry Potter book eclipses The Hunger Games by approximately 1.5 million ratings. The Philosopher’s Stone (or Sorcerer’s Stone for U.S. readers) has been rated nearly twelve million times. For context, the remaining six books in the original Potter series average between 3-4 million ratings each. (Only one other Potter book is over five million. Spoilers, it is #1 on this ranking.)
Despite author J.K. Rowling’s increasingly controversial reputation these days, Harry Potter’s debut installment still holds down a dominant 64% 5-star ratings. That’s 7.6 million 5-stars, more than all of To Kill a Mockingbird’s ratings. 2.8 million more readers gave The Philosopher’s Stone 4-stars.
So, despite some Goodreads users swimming upstream against popular opinion to criticize the book, it maintains a 4.47 average rating. That puts it at #2 on this list, but as far as the Harry Potter franchise is concerned, Philosopher’s Stone actually comes in fifth, with two other books tied for second.
[Get the first Harry Potter book here.]
1
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban
By J.K. Rowling; 4.58 Star Rating
With a 4.58 average rating, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is tied with The Half-Blood Prince for the second highest-rated Potter novel. Together they trail Deathly Hallows by 0.04%. However, Azkaban has been rated substantially more times than both of those other two novels.
It is common to witness a drop-off in ratings from the first book of a series to the second, and onward. (The same is true of book sales.) With Potter, it goes from 11.8 million reviews for The Philosopher’s Stone to 4.6 million for Chamber of Secrets, a more than 50% drop. What is curious is that, with Azkaban, there’s a spike back up to just over five million.
Combined, these factors put Prisoner of Azkaban at #1 on this list. It holds the highest average star rating of any book with more than five million ratings on Goodreads. Of which there are currently less than ten.
