The computer book section isn't gone yet. But it's getting smaller. In some stores it's down to a rack of six titles, three of which are about ChatGPT.
The numbers are stark. Computer book sales fell 16.9% year-over-year in the first nine months of 2023. The "professional books" segment — the category that covers technical reference, the stuff your employer used to buy you — was down 22.3% in August 2025. And then, quietly, Publishers Weekly simply stopped reporting the category. Not a press conference. Not a Napster moment. Just silence.
"The category doesn't die, it just stops being talked about."
What actually changed
The demand hasn't disappeared — it's been rerouted. ChatGPT now has 900 million monthly active users. GitHub Copilot has 4.7 million paying subscribers as of January 2026, up roughly 75% in a year. Stack Overflow is receiving about 3,800 questions a month — which is exactly what it was getting in 2008, before it had even finished launching.
