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List of best-selling books

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

This page provides lists of best-selling books and book series to date and in any language. "Best-selling" refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Comics and textbooks are not included in this list. The books are listed according to the highest sales estimate as reported in reliable, independent sources.

According to Guinness World Records, as of 1995, the Bible was the best-selling book of all time, with an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed.[1] Sales estimates for other printed religious texts include at least 800 million copies for the Qur'an and 200 million copies for the Book of Mormon.[2] Also, a single publisher has produced more than 162.1 million copies of the Bhagavad Gita. The total number could be much higher considering the widespread distribution and publications by ISKCON.The ISKCON has distributed about 503.39 million Bhagavad Gita since 1965[3][4] Among non-religious texts, the Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, also known as the Little Red Book, has produced a wide array of sales and distribution figures—with estimates ranging from 800 million[1] to over 6.5 billion printed volumes.[5] Some claim the distribution ran into the "billions"[6] and some cite "over a billion" official volumes between 1966 and 1969 alone as well as "untold numbers of unofficial local reprints and unofficial translations".[7][8] Exact print figures for these and other books may also be missing or unreliable since these kinds of books may be produced by many different and unrelated publishers, in some cases over many centuries. All books of a religious, ideological, philosophical or political nature have thus been excluded from the lists of best-selling books below for these reasons.

Many books lack comprehensive sales figures as book selling and reselling figures prior to the introduction of point of sale equipment was based on the estimates of book sellers, publishers or the authors themselves. For example, one of the one volume Harper Collins editions of The Lord of the Rings was recorded to have sold only 967,466 copies in the UK by 2009 (the source does not cite the start date),[9] but at the same time the author's estate claimed global sales figures of in excess of 150 million. Accurate figures are only available from the 1990s[citation needed] and in western nations such as US, UK, Canada and Australia, although figures from the US are available from the 1940s. Further, e-books have not been included as out of copyright texts are often available free in this format. Examples of books with claimed high sales include The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas,[10] Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes,[11] Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en[12] and The Lord of the Rings[13] (which has been sold as both a three volume series, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King, as a single combined volume and as a six volume set in a slipcase) by J. R. R. Tolkien. Hence, in cases where there is too much uncertainty, they are excluded from the list.

Having sold more than 600 million copies worldwide,[14] Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is the best-selling book series in history. The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, has sold in excess of 120 million copies,[15] making it one of the best-selling books of all time. As of June 2017, the series has been translated into 85 languages,[16] placing Harry Potter among history's most translated literary works. The last four books in the series consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books of all time, and the final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, sold roughly fifteen million copies worldwide within twenty-four hours of its release.[17][18] With twelve million books printed in the first US run, it also holds the record for the highest initial print run for any book in history.[19][20]

  1. ^ a b "Best selling book of non-fiction". Guinness World Records. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  2. ^ "Episode 169: Elder Dale G. Renlund on his testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Church's distribution of 200 million copies of the sacred text". Deseret News. Church News. February 1, 2024. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  3. ^ "BBT Reaches Half a Billion Books Distributed Since 1965". ISKCON News. 2014-02-12. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  4. ^ Press, Gita (Aug 23, 2024). "World's Largest publisher of Hindu Religious Texts".
  5. ^ Zhengyuan Fu, Autocratic Tradition and Chinese Politics, Cambridge University Press 1994, p. 186. Autocratic Tradition and Chinese Politics Archived 2016-01-12 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Allen Kent, Harold Lancour, Jay E. Daily, Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, Volume 22, CRC Press 1977, p.31. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science
  7. ^ Alexander C. Cook, Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History, Cambridge University Press 2014, p. xiii Mao's Little Red Book: A Global History Archived 2016-01-12 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Daniel Leese, Mao Cult: Rhetoric and Ritual in China's Cultural Revolution, Cambridge University Press 2013, p. 108 Mao Cult: Rhetoric and Ritual in China's Cultural Revolution Archived 2016-01-12 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Rogers, Simon (2012-08-09). "The top 100 bestselling books of all time: how does Fifty Shades of Grey compare?". the Guardian. Retrieved 2023-11-15.
  10. ^ Bruzelius, Margaret (2007). Romancing the Novel: Adventure from Scott to Sebald. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-8387-5644-7. Retrieved April 26, 2022. Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, like many of Scott's novels, was a runaway best-seller and is still widely available in abbreviated and entire editions and even in comic strip format.
  11. ^ Egginton, William (2016). The Man Who Invented Fiction: How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. xxii–xxiii, 190–191. ISBN 978-1-62040-175-0. With the publication of Don Quixote, Cervantes created one of the world's first runaway, international bestsellers. From its publication in the early days of 1605 to the present, Don Quixote has become the most published work of literature in history...The truth is, though, that we cannot know how many copies have been made, sold, or, much less, read in the four hundred years since Don Quixote was first published; its influence has been, in every sense of the word, immeasurable.
  12. ^ Kherdian, David (2005). Monkey: A Journey to the West. p. 7. is probably the most popular book in all of East Asia.
  13. ^ Thompson, Kristin (2007). The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. California: University of California Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-520-24774-1. Retrieved December 30, 2020.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Harry Potter copies was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Chalton, Nicola; MacArdle, Meredith (2017). 20th Century in Bite-Sized Chunks. Chartwell Books. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-7858-3510-3. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  16. ^ "Scholastic Marks 25 Year Anniversary of The Publication Of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | Scholastic Media Room". mediaroom.scholastic.com. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  17. ^ Forbes on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "The final one, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has sold 44 million since it was published last July, including 15 million in the first 24 hours." (19 December 2008)
  18. ^ World Record Academy on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – the seventh and last novel in the series – sold around 15 million copies worldwide in its first day and set the new world record for the fastest selling book." (23 July 2007)
  19. ^ BBC Archived 2008-11-28 at the Wayback Machine on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "The book had a print run of 12 million in the US, compared with 10.8 million for the last book, according to Lisa Holton of the book's US publisher Scholastic." (23 July 2007)
  20. ^ Inshorts on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: "The final instalment of the Harry Potter series, 'The Deathly Hallows' is recognised by Guinness World Records as 'the fastest selling book of fiction in 24 hours' with a total of 15 million books sold. With 12 million books printed in the first run, it also holds a record for the 'highest initial print run for a fiction book'." (4 July 2016)

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