Charts Global bestsellers Rowling rules the roost
Potermania gripped the Nielsen territories in 2016, with the latest wizarding instalment topping the bestseller lists across the globe. Kiera O’Brien reports
E
XPECT TO SEE rather a lot of a certain playscript in the charts pages over the next few days:
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child charts in the top three in nine of the 10 Nielsen territories’ bestseller lists covering February 2016 to Febru- ary 2017, topping five. Across Book- Scan’s reach alone, it shiſted more than seven million units—a figure that doesn’t include the rest of the world and Potermore’s vigilantly guarded e-book sales.
Cursed Child’s biggest sales were, unsurprisingly, in the US. With a market of 350 million no-majes to the UK’s 64 million Muggles, the playscript’s 4.4 million copies sold Stateside was a whopping 200% up on its UK volume. Although, break- ing it down per capita, one in every 45 Brits bought a copy of Cursed Child in the eight months since its release— and this is a relatively small country, with a (mostly) working public trans- port system, in which the actual stage play is being performed twice weekly. In comparison, a litle over one in every 100 Americans shelled out for the “eighth Harry Poter”, which, barring a Broadway transfer, could be their only way of finding out what happened aſter “all was well”.
J K Rowling ran away with the best- selling author of the year title around the globe last year. Her total volume was nearly doublel that of even Dr Seuss in the US, which holds a national reading event on his birthday every year. In the UK, despite not having a national holi- day on Rowling’s birth-
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his birthday e UK, des
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n away with the best- the year title around ar. Her t
the US, claiming seventh place. Ireland also crowned Cursed
day (yet), the author crushed the opposition, pulling in a whisker under £30m in the past 52 weeks. Her 2016 total was the fiſth best annual haul for an author since records began. Even Julia Donaldson, who was the UK’s biggest-earning author for three years running (2013–15) and had an excel- lent 2016, could barely rustle up half of Rowling’s total.
Backlist boost Cursed Child accounted for just over half of Rowling’s UK value and 65% of her US volume. In the UK, the origi- nal Harry Poter septet enjoyed a 52% boost, while in the US, Harry Potter and the, er, Sorcerer’s Stone shiſted 387,528 copies to fall one place outside the top 30 bestsellers of the past 52 weeks. And who could forget the other 2016 Poter-universe screenplay, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them? It sold 370,724 copies in the UK to chart 11th overall, and 690,336 units in
and th 387,52
The opening of the stage play
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” (above) saw its
tie-in top all three territories featured, with the author surpassing Julia
Donaldson (below) as the UK’s most valuable author. In the US, Fredrik Backman’s (above) A Man Called Ove was a breakout hit, charting fifth.
Called Ov
reakout hit, g fifth.
Child its bestselling title, though it was a closer-run thing in the Emer- ald Isle than in the UK or US: Paul O’Connell’s The Battle shiſted only 2,552 copies fewer. The rugby player’s autobiography was named Irish Sports Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and O’Connell, follow- ing in the footsteps of former chart- topping Irish rugby players, also featured among the three top-earning authors of the year. That list contains just one other Irishman, with Graham Norton securing eighth place. Five Brits and two Americans (including Bruce Springsteen, whose Born to Run
XX hMontXXth Month 2017 XXt XXth Mon h 2 XthMonth 2017 nth201
Photography: Linnea Jonasson; Chris Athanasiou
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