Bible sales have surged in the U.S. in the wake of recent violent events, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk, new data has shown.
Sales of the Christian holy book increased by 36 percent in September, compared with the same month last year, according to publishing sales tracker Circana BookScan.
Prior to that, sales had hovered around a steady 1.5 million units per month through 2025, shooting up to 2.4 million when Kirk was killed in September, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Kirk, a MAGA commentator and influencer, was vocal about his Christian beliefs. He was shot and killed on a university campus in Utah on September 10 at the age of 31.
As well as an overall increase in sales, other religious publishers, including HarperCollins Christian Publishing, have also observed a rising interest in Bibles from people aged 18-34 – the demographic Kirk engaged with in his college debate events.
Kirk’s death has “awakened a lot of people,” according to Mark Schoenwald, president and chief executive of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. “They started to think about what they believe and why,” Schoenwald told The Journal.
He added that sales of related study guides may suggest that readers are making renewed efforts to understand the Bible and apply its teachings to their own lives.
HarperCollins Christian Publishing describes itself as the country’s largest commercial Bible and Christian book publisher. Like The Wall Street Journal, the publisher is owned by News Corp.
Schoenwald’s sentiment is shared by other analysts.
“September brought a wave of troubling events – violence, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty – underscoring a pattern: In times of crisis, more people turn to faith for comfort and support,” Brenna Connor, an analyst at Circana BookScan, told The Journal.
Kirk’s wife, Erika, claimed at his funeral in Arizona on September 21, that his assassination had sparked a religious revival across the country.
“This past week, we saw people open a Bible for the first time in a decade. We saw people pray for the first time since they were children. We saw people go to a church service for the first time in their entire lives,” she said.
In her remarks, Kirk also forgave the man accused of shooting her husband.
The trend of increased Bible sales may be good news for President Donald Trump, who has been hawking his own personal branded Holy Book, which retails at $59.99 and memorializes the attempt on his own life in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 2024.
Trump’s name is on the cover above the phrase, “The Day God Intervened.” The wording appears to have been stamped on after the Bible was produced. The books are sold exclusively through a website that states it is not affiliated with any political campaign nor is it owned or controlled by the president.
A previous investigation by The Associated Press found that the patriotic “God Bless the USA” Bibles were actually made in China.
