Mad About Harry: Book Breaks Sales Records

NEW YORK, July 23 -- The numbers are new, the story old: No book has sold like "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

Bloomsbury PLC, the British publisher of J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, announced Monday that the seventh and final volume sold a record 2.65 million copies in the United Kingdom in the first 24 hours. The previous high was for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which sold 2 million in its first day of release, in 2005.

In the United States, Barnes & Noble Inc. also reported all-time sales, saying Monday that 1.8 million copies were purchased in the first two days, including 560,000 in the first hour, a rate of more than 150 copies per second.

The audiobook is a record breaker, too: 225,000 copies in the first two days, according to Random House Audio's Listening Library.

On Sunday, Scholastic Inc. said 8.3 million hardcovers sold in the United States during the first 24 hours, easily breaking the old high of 6.9 million, for "Half-Blood Prince."

Scholastic spokeswoman Kyle Good said plans for increasing the print run of 12 million copies for "Deathly Hallows" were "in discussion."

The frenzy for the new Potter, released Saturday at midnight, carried over to all Potters. Barnes & Noble said that besides "Deathly Hallows," 213,000 copies of other Potter books sold at its stores over the weekend.