Walking thru Barnes and Noble, it is amazing how many shelves are taken up by all the various versions/translations of the Bible. Seems like theologians (and probably even some non-theologians) have gone a little wild in working to publish so many.
KJV NKJV NIV RSV ESV MSG GoodNews : and on and on and on!
So why are there so many? Personal opinion: money has got to have something to do with it, right? What I mean: every time a new version comes out, they know a bunch of folks will add it to their collection. Especially if the translation is sponsored by a popular preacher OR features a new type of reference/commentary OR has embedded devotionals OR is written for a specific focus group (i.e. students, athletes, student athletes, military athletes, veterans, widows, quilters, muffinmen, etc.).
This provides some good reasoning:
https://www.crossway.org/articles/why-are-there-so-many-versions-of-the-bible/
Speaking of Bible translations, which do you think are the best-selling ones?
Several of them are mentioned above.
The big 3 (as of 2020 at least): NIV, KJV, NLT
Rest of the top 10:
https://churchanswers.com/blog/the-top-ten-best-selling-bibles-compared-to-ten-years-ago/
I grew up NIV, and it's still the one I prefer. I do read The Message a lot too. Some argue that's not a real translation. While I agree it's one man's somewhat-loose modern interpretation, I find it brings a fresh perspective to the ancient Biblical texts. I get virtually nothing from KJV, although I do remember borrowing Papa Honnold's "Oral Roberts Reads the Bible" KJV cassette tapes back as a youngster.
I'll leave you with this graphic to chew upon:
Grace and Peace and Love to you all -
Matt