Strong gains in all categories led to a 13% increase in unit sales of print books in the week ended Oct. 24, 2020, over the comparable week in 2019, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. The double-digit increase came despite only a few new books making a splash. Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights was the #1 title in the week, selling about 78,000 copies and boosting sales in the adult nonfiction category 6.2% over the week ended Oct. 26, 2019. Another new nonfiction release, America Under Assault, Vol. 3 by Tom Fitton, sold about 40,000 copies, putting it in fourth place on the overall bestseller list. The juvenile and YA categories all had gains of at least 20% in the week, led by a combination of older frontlist and backlist books. The 20.8% increase in juvenile fiction was led by sales of Dav Pilkey’s Grime and Punishment (Dog Man #9), which sold approximately 45,000 copies in the week and more than 743,000 copies since its release on September 1. In second place on the juvenile fiction list was Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, which sold about 31,000 copies. Two million-plus-copy sellers led sales in the YA fiction category, which had a 39% increase. Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer sold about 20,000 copies in the week, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins sold 6,000 copies.
Editor’s note: Sales for the most recent week do not include totals from one retailer. BookScan expects to make a minor adjustment to sales when the data becomes available.
