Final Potter book sells over 11 million in first day

LONDON (AFP) - The seventh and final Harry Potter book sold more than 11.3 million copies during its first 24 hours on sale in Britain, Germany and the United States, according to figures compiled yesterday.

A total of 11,350,927 copies were sold in the three countries on the first day, according to figures released by its publishers.

A total of 2,652,656 copies of "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows" were sold in Britain from 2301 GMT Friday, making it the fastest-selling work in British history, publishers Bloomsbury said.

Although they had predicted it would sell three million, the figure still beat the previous record set by its series predecessor, "Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince," which sold just over two million.

Bloomsbury said it sold 398,271 copies of the English language edition in the same period in Germany.

But these figures were dwarfed by sales in the United States, where the book shifted around 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours.

The publisher, Scholastic, said Sunday it printed a record 12 million copies in anticipation of the 12:01 am release on Saturday.

"Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince", released in July 2005 had sold a record 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours from a press run of 10.8 million copies, Scholastic said.

Bloomsbury, quoting figures from Nielsen BookScan, an independent book trade monitoring service, said in a statement in London that the Potter event was the "most astoundingly successful book launch ever."

Figures from individual retailers in Britain and the United States further illustrated the speedy rate at which the books flew off the shelves.

Leading British retailer WH Smith sold 15 books per second on the launch night, while over 7,000 people queued outside competitor Waterstone's in central London to buy the book.

"We are staggered by the speed of the sale," a spokesman said, adding it was "absolutely record breaking."

Borders USA chief executive officer George Jones told AFP at the weekend that it was the biggest day in the bookstore's history, with 1.2 million copies of the Potter book sold worldwide on Saturday.

Figures were not immediately available from the scores of other countries where it went on sale.

Author J.K. Rowling, who wrote the first in the series as a single mother receiving state benefits, has made an estimated one billion dollars (725 million euros) from her work.

Some 325 million copies of the first six volumes have been sold worldwide, and translated into 64 languages.