"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final volume of J.K. Rowling's best-selling series, sold a record 11 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in three markets alone, publishers announced Monday.
U.S. sales hit a mountainous 8.3 million on its first day, according to U.S. publisher Scholastic Inc.
In Britain, Bloomsbury sold a record 2.7 million copies of the final Potter book in the first 24 hours.
In addition, nearly 400,000 copies of the book's English language edition were bought in Germany over the same period.
No other book, not even any of the six previous Potters, has been so desired. "Deathly Hallows" averaged more than 300,000 copies in sales per hour -- more than 5,000 a minute -- in the United States.
Both Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble announced that pre-orders exceeded 1 million. On Sunday, seven of the top best sellers on Amazon were Potter-related.
Thousands of Potter fans queued outside book stores in major cities around the world over the weekend to get hold of the book, which answers the question "Does Harry survive?"
"The excitement, anticipation, and just plain hysteria that came over the entire country this weekend was a bit like the Beatles' first visit to the U.S.," Scholastic president Lisa Holton said in a statement Sunday.
"This weekend kids and adults alike are sitting on buses, in the park, on airplanes and in restaurants reading 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'," Holton said.
Reviews for "Deathly Hallows" have been almost universally glowing, despite prerelease "spoilers" that proliferated on the Internet.
"The book was fascinating, and I think I'll have to read it through at least once more before I get the full scope of it -- but I thought it had some of her best, most action-packed, funniest moments in it," said Melissa Anelli, webmaster for the Potter fan site, who said she finished the 759-page book Saturday.
"Deathly Hallows" was so popular that Hollywood studio Warner Bros. acknowledged it took away business from "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth Potter movie, because fans were too busy.
Rowling, 41, is expected to see her fortune swell further over the coming years. She is estimated to be worth 1.12 billion U.S. dollars already, making her the first dollar-billionaire author.
Source: Xinhua/agencies
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