Harry Potter reigns supreme with Amazon customers

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is Amazon's bestselling book for kids and teens in 2016, and the retail giant's overall top-selling title for the year.
December 7, 2016

Proving that readers young and old can’t get enough of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter universe, the eighth story in the author’s record-breaking franchise—Harry Potter and the Cursed Child—has topped Amazon’s bestselling books list of 2016.

Not only is Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts 1 & 2, Special Rehearsal Edition Script the bestselling book in Amazon’s kids and teens category this year, it’s also the e-retailers’ overall bestselling new release of 2016. It is the most gifted and wished for book of the year, as well as the first time a play has made the top 20 bestsellers list.

In fact, two additional books from the Potter world, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Illustrated Edition (Harry Potter, Book 2) by J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay, made the top 20 bestsellers list of kids and teens books, placing fourth and seventh, respectively.

Prior to its July 31 release, Cursed Child was also Amazon’s most-anticipated book of the year and broke pre-order records months before its launch.

Taking the number two spot on the kids and teens list this year is the 11th title from Jeff Kinney’s hit franchise, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Kinney, for his part, has made the 20 bestselling kids and teens list four years in a row.

Also making it to the top 20 list four years’ running is Rick Riordan, whose latest book, The Trials of Apollo, Book 1: The Hidden Oracle, sits in the third spot.

Looking a bit more closely at the kids and teens category, more than half of the top 20 titles are part of a series, further solidifying the power of the book franchise.

For Scholastic, trade division sales of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child helped drive the publisher’s revenue up 48% to US$282.7 million during the first quarter of fiscal 2017.

The full top 100 list of Amazon’s bestselling print and Kindle books of 2016 can be found here.

About The Author
Jeremy is the Features Editor of Kidscreen specializing in the content production, broadcasting and distribution aspects of the global children's entertainment industry. Contact Jeremy at jdickson@brunico.com.

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