Cursed Child Number 1 Best Seller for 2016 on Amazon
By Ani Bundel
Amazon has announced the Number 1 Best Selling Books of 2016 for both their US and UK websites: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
From the moment Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was announced as being published in script form back in February, it was the biggest thing in publishing since, well, 2007 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The twitter streets were filled with Potterheads, sobbing with joy. The internet was dumbfoundedly scratching their heads over how much this could bring in. And the Amazon pre-orders went through the roof.
Only days after the announcement, Harry Potter and the Cured Child was seated comfortably atop the Amazon Best Seller list for pre-sales, with orders only matched by….the previous Harry Potter novels. It speaks to the impact these books have had on the publishing industry that in order to match the kind of numbers Harry Potter put up the first time they needed….more Harry Potter. Nothing else has come close.
So, with this year drawing to a close, we can now say definitively what we knew was most likely true back in February–that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was indeed the best selling book of 2016.
People queue up to purchase copies of British author J.K. Rowlings latest book in the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, on July 31, 2016 at Lello, a Gothic Revival style bookstore in the historic centre of Porto, Northern Portugal shortly after worldwide sales of the seven-volume global blockbuster began.
Thousands of fans will descend on Porto this weekend for a festival organised by Lello, says Jose Manuel Lello, 59 and the great-grandson of one of the two brothers who founded the bookstore which has ordered 5,000 copies of the new story. / AFP / MIGUEL RIOPA (Photo credit should read MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images)
In a statement, Chris Schluep, Amazon Senior Book Editor said:
"“This year’s best-selling list showcases the variety of Amazon readers’ tastes, from literary fiction to thrillers to memoirs. The power of Potter is still strong, and readers of all ages can’t get enough of Hogwarts. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was the most anticipated book of the year, breaking pre-order records months before its release.”"
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The Top Twenty Best Selling books of 2016 are below:
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2, Special Rehearsal Edition Script by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
- The Whistler by John Grisham
- The Last Mile (Amos Decker series) by David Baldacci
- Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
- Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
- Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty
- Night School: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child
- The Black Widow: Book 16 of Gabriel Allon Series by Daniel Silva
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid # 11: Double Down by Jeff Kinney
- 15th Affair (Women’s Murder Club) by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
- Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
- Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben
- Crisis of Character: A White House Secret Service Officer Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate by Gary J. Byrne
- The Wrong Side of Goodbye: A Harry Bosch Novel by Michael Connelly
- The Magnolia Story by Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines
- The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
- One with You: Book 5 of A Crossfire Series by Sylvia Day
- The Obsession by Nora Roberts
- Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale