The holiday sales period ended on a high note with unit sales of print books increasing 5.8% over the week ended December 24, 2022 at outlets that report to Circana BookScan.
Sales were up in all categories led by young adult fiction where sales jumped 34.6%. Volume 5 in Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series led the gain, selling more than 90,000 copies in its first week on sale, making it the top-selling title in the week before Christmas. The film version of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes drove up sales of several titles connected to titles in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Game oeuvre; four of her books on the young adult category’s top 10 sold about 92,000 copies.
Sales of adult fiction also rose by double digits, increasing 11% driven by the familiar combination of two Rebecca Yarros titles, Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, which sold about 80,000 and 64,000 copies, respectively, in the week, and James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which sold nearly 71,000 copies.
Adult nonfiction sales increased 3.5% with Liz Cheney’s Oath and Honor returning to the number one spot on the category list, selling just over 71,000 copies. The Wager by David Grann had a big week with sales topping 61,000 copies, good enough for second place on the category list. Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon, the basis for the much-praised film, sold over 35,000 copies.
The juvenile fiction category had the smallest gain in the week with sales up 3.4%. Books by Jeff Kinney and Dav Pilkey finished in first and second place, respectively, once again. Kinney’s newest Wimpy Kid title, No Brainer, sold over 69,000 copies, while the fifth volume in Pilkey’s Cat Kid Comic Club series, Influencers, sold just under 54,000 copies.
