- May 15, 2007

Harry Potter Preorders Top 1 Million, Shows Strong Popularity Among Adults

I recently read the report that Amazon logged more than 1 million preorders for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” several months before its official release in July. I’m pleased to say that Comscore’s data matches the number of preordered units at Amazon sites, showing 1,001,061 million sold. Our data also shows that 69 percent of all the buyers are in North America, and 26 percent are in Europe (Amazon reported 650,000 units sold at www.amazon.com, and 250,000 from www.amazon.co.uk).

We dug even deeper into our data to see who was buying the book, and noticed that a large percentage of them (47%) were households without children, reflecting the popularity of the Harry Potter series even among adults.

I must admit to a personal bias when it comes to Harry Potter. I was born, raised and educated in the U.K., and while the U.S. has been my home for more than 30 years, to this day I’m captivated when reading J.K. Rowling’s masterpieces. Memories of my own schooldays come flooding back. Comscore’s data would suggest that I’m certainly not alone in that regard …