Sales of David Walliams books plummet 30% since allegations of inappropriate behaviour in the direction of girls
The Little Britain star’s children’s books are struggling since he was axed by HarperCollins last month over claims he had harassed female employees at the company.
Mr Walliams has been dropped by his publisher(Image: Getty Images)
Sales of David Walliams books have plummeted 30% since he was dropped by his publisher amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women.
The star of TV’s Little Britain and Come Fly With Me was axed by HarperCollins last month over claims he had harassed female employees at the company.
The Children’s Trust said the 54-year-old former Britain’s Got Talent judge had been dropped as an ambassador for the charity while the BBC said they had ‘no future projects’ in the pipeline for him.
Walliams has strongly denied the allegations.
He is one of the most successful authors since accurate records began having sold nearly 26m books for £153m since releasing his debut The Boy in the Dress in 2008.
Only three other authors – Harry Potter creator JK Rowling, The Gruffalo writer Julia Donaldson and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver – have raked in more money in recent years.
But sales of Walliams’s works dropped 30% in the last two weeks of 2025, according to NielsenIQ BookData.
That equates to a fall in sales of around 15,000 books.
For eight weeks following the publication of his latest title Santa & Son in October his sales had been up 11.2% year-on-year.
But they plunged 19.2% in the fortnight after the allegations emerged – making a 30% downward swing overall.
In the first week of this year his sales have been down 41.5% compared to the same week in 2025.
In its statement which followed an investigation HarperCollins UK said it had ‘decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams’.
“The author is aware of this decision,” the publisher said.
“HarperCollins takes employee wellbeing extremely seriously and has processes in place for reporting and investigating concerns.
“To respect the privacy of individuals we do not comment on internal matters.”
At the time a spokesman for Walliams said he had ‘never been informed of any allegations raised against him’ by his publisher, adding: “He was not party to any investigation or given any opportunity to answer questions.
“David strongly denies that he has behaved inappropriately and is taking legal advice.”
According to trade publication The Bookseller HarperCollins will continue publishing the author’s backlist titles.
Tom Gatti, former editor of The New Statesman, forecast Walliams’s decline as a children’s author in 2023.
He said it was ‘unsurprising’ his books had been a hit with youngsters as they were ‘easy to read, full of bodily functions, familiar tropes and lavish, lively illustrations’.
“The reason why they are a phenomenon, though, has little to do with talent and much to do with the market,” he added.
“But the recent trajectory has been downwards.
“Although The World’s Worst Monsters went straight to No1 in the UK chart it sold half as many copies in its first week as The World’s Worst Pets did in 2022 – and neither came near Walliams’s pre-pandemic heights.
“Might his appeal be finally waning?”
