The forthcoming final Harry Potter book has become Amazon’s most ever pre-ordered item – and the pre-ordering isn’t finished yet.
Online orders for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows passed the previous 1.5m mark set by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday.
With pre-orders standing at just under 1.6 million, Amazon told Reuters it expects “many more hundreds of thousands of copies” to be ordered via the website.
Bloomsbury has the publishing deal in the UK and the franchise includes spin-off audio books, titles with different covers aimed at adults and children and a line of movies.
Writer JK Rowling has whetted fans’ appetites by revealing one character will be killed off, but, typically coy, has refused to reveal the character’s identity.
Amazon has made the seventh book available at a half-price £8.99, which, according to pre-order figures, would represent a guaranteed £14.4m in sales.
Previous reports said Amazon UK’s most recent pre-orders record was set by the November Wii in November.
All units made available disappeared immediately as eager gamers snapped up the innovative console via pre-order.