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3.58 Million Copies Sold Across 40 Languages
According to statistics released by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) on July 28, 2026, Korean literary works sold a cumulative 3.58 million copies abroad between 2021 and 2025. During the same period, a total of 1,026 titles were translated and published across 40 different languages. Over these five years, the scale of overseas sales and translated publications of Korean literature has expanded to an all-time high.
This momentum wasn’t confined to a single breakout year. For two consecutive years, Korean literature recorded annual sales hovering around 1.2 million copies, with 1,197,557 copies sold in 2025 alone. With annual volumes consistently hitting this 1.2 million mark, the global spread of Korean literature has evolved from a fleeting trend into sustained, steady readership.
Looking at the cumulative sales and the number of translated titles together reveals two clear directions of this expansion. The 3.58 million copies represent actual purchases by international readers, while the 1,026 titles highlight the growing breadth of options available to them. Reaching 40 languages proves that Korean literature is no longer restricted to a handful of countries or specific languages, but has successfully woven its way into diverse reading markets around the world.
Han Kang’s “We Do Not Part” Takes the Top Spot
In terms of individual works, Han Kang’s We Do Not Part recorded the highest sales. This novel alone sold about 300,000 copies across 13 countries. A single powerhouse book managed to capture readers in multiple nations, effectively driving the overall surge in Korean literature sales. Both the volume of sales and the sheer number of countries publishing translations reflect a broader movement of Korean literature expanding far beyond a single language barrier.
The intense spotlight on Korean literature following Han Kang’s Nobel Prize in Literature naturally translated into book sales. The 300,000 copies of We Do Not Part sold across 13 countries serve as a prime example of how attention directed at a single author translates into actual global reading habits. It signifies that the momentum didn’t end with the post-award buzz; rather, it sparked a genuine, ongoing demand to read the translated works firsthand.
The milestone of selling around 300,000 copies in 13 countries shows that Han’s work didn’t rely on concentrated success in just one market. Readers from various nations experienced the book in their own languages, propelling it to the top of the overall sales charts. The international accolade did far more than just make the author’s name known—it directly fueled the global distribution and actual consumption of her specific works.
Growth Beyond a Fleeting Trend
The key takeaway from these statistics is that the post-Nobel interest cannot be narrowly attributed to just one book or a single moment in time. Cumulative sales reached 3.58 million copies from 2021 to 2025, with 1,026 titles translated and published in 40 languages. The sheer scope of diverse Korean literary works meeting readers in various languages has broadened significantly right alongside it.
While Han Kang’s work undeniably claimed the highest sales figures, the overall scale of growth is much larger than the success of a single novel. An array of works translated, published, and sold across 40 language markets collectively built that impressive 3.58 million milestone. If Han’s international achievement drew the world’s eye to Korean literature, the 1,026 translated titles provided the necessary infrastructure, allowing that curiosity to discover an even wider variety of stories.
Han’s achievements are undoubtedly the engine driving this larger trend, but they don’t tell the whole story of Korean literature’s overseas sales. When a chart-topping bestseller exists alongside a deep bench of diverse translated releases, initial interest organically expands into a wider reading culture. The fact that sales hovered around 1.2 million copies for two straight years reinforces the idea that this isn’t just a brief spike following an award, but a steady, ongoing trajectory of growth.
What Translation Volumes and Sustained Sales Tell Us
When evaluating the global rise of Korean literature, the number of translated titles is just as crucial to look at as the sales figures. With 1,026 titles introduced to 40 languages over five years, the sheer variety of Korean literature available to international readers has drastically deepened. It means the foundation has expanded enough to support the translation and distribution of many different books, moving well beyond the works of a few star authors.
Translated publication is the vital first step in connecting international readers with Korean literature, and sales figures prove whether that connection resulted in actual choices. In this recent announcement, both of those metrics surged together. As more works were introduced abroad, cumulative sales simultaneously reached an unprecedented peak. The global spread of Korean literature is the healthy result of both the supply of works and reader demand growing in sync.
The 1,197,557 copies sold in 2025 provide hard numerical proof that international interest in Korean literature hasn’t fizzled out after one major global award. The key thing to watch now is whether this annual baseline of roughly 1.2 million copies holds steady, and whether the boosted volume of translations will lead to sustained sales across an even broader spectrum of works.
Source: LTI Korea Announcement, July 28, 2026.
