To add to what others have said: I wanted to clarify that Shakespeare wasn't read. I know you know he was a playwright, but nowadays, probably more people read Shakespeare than see his plays. But with just a few exceptions, Shakespeare's plays were not published until 1623, 7 years after he died. The few that were printed earlier were likely done so for the sake of performers to use, not for the public. So this meant his initial influence, and the number of people who knew his works, were somewhat geographically and numerically restricted. But of course his fame just grew and grew.

Jane Austen's first books were modestly popular, and she published anonymously so she personally got no attention. But her reputation grew. By the time of Emma's publication in 1815 (her 4th published novel and just 4 years after her first published novel), she was acclaimed enough to have received the praise of the Prince Regent, to whom she dedicated (probably unhappily) Emma. When she died in 1817, she was buried in Winchester Cathedral, which was an honor she got due to her acclaim.

Dickens was immensely popular. Think Stephen King, only more so. His works were widely pirated, as someone else mentioned. He wrote a number of his novels as serials, in about 20 parts. There was extreme excitement about getting each subsequent chapter, and it occupied a lot of public attention--sort of like people are with the finale of a favorite TV show.

In John Foster's biography of Dickens, he tells the story of the charwoman who couldn't read but paid a small subscription to a tea party where The Old Curiosity Shop was read aloud to the company. If you didn't want the tea you paid less. One of the biographies ( I can look it up if anyone wants) estimates 1 in 6 of the population either read or had it read to them.

Shakespeare was a poet before he was a playwrite.

He was not recognized as a playwrite until 1598, but in 1593 he published Venus & Adonis, and in 1594 he published The Rape of Lucrece.

The number of early editions of Venus & Adonis suggests that it was Shakespeare's most popular work while he was alive.

http://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/shakespeare/venus&adonis.html

Charles Dickens' publication Household Words, which offered editorials, social commentaries and serialised pieces of fiction, had an estimated weekly readership of around 38,000. Dickens had a developed history of writing materials for magazines and periodicals - Oliver Twist was distributed in 24 installments in Richard Bentley's Bentley's Miscellany from 1837 to 1839. Even if we exclude the success of his novels, Dickens was a hugely popular social commentator among the lower/lower-middle classes.

Household Words, which was in circulation from 1850 to 1859, cost only twopence, putting it within the realms of affordability for most working city dwellers at the time. Putting that into perspective, a carpenter in c.1850 London could expect to earn around 60 pence per day (5 shillings). An unskilled textiles worker could probably expect around 30-40 pence per day depending on their sex, age and output. In rural communities (which were growing sparser throughout the 19th century), wages fluctuated across the seasons, though Household Words remained firmly within the realms of affordability for the simplest agricultural worker.

We should also bear in mind that the number of copies of Dickens' publications sold do not necessarily reflect the number of readers. Illiteracy during this period was still widespread, thus an entire household may have delegated the task of reading aloud to a literate family member/friend. I can't locate a source, but I remember reading of an elderly widower that held weekly meetings in which her and her guests would all chip in for a copy of Household Words and have her literate relative read to it to the group.

In short, Dickens was enjoyed by a huge number of people of all classes (though the desired audience was primarily the lower-middle/middle). He would definitely have been a household name and his serialised works, which could be regarded as a forefather of the modern soap opera, were a popular discussion point. In fact, as with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, a detectable amount of public controversy often rose from the plot developments in Dickens' serialised novels.

Edit: a word.