With all segments except juvenile fiction posting increases, unit sales of print books inched up 1.4% last week over Thanksgiving week last year.
The young adult fiction category had the largest increase, with sales jumping 24.7% over the week ending November 26, 2022, at outlets that report to Circana BookScan. Suzanne Collins had three titles on the category’s top 10 list, with two directly connected to the film adaptation of her Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which was released November 17. The original book sold nearly 52,000 copies last week, while the tie-in edition sold almost 25,000 copies. The Hunger Games, the first book in the eponymous trilogy, sold over 12,000 copies.
Adult fiction sales rose 5.4%, driven by another strong performance from the two books in Rebecca Yarros's Empyrean series: Iron Flame, which was in first place on the category, list selling over 90,000 copies, and Fourth Wing, which sold almost 67,000 copies. Since it was released in early November, Iron Flame has sold over 751,000 copies, while Fourth Wing, published in May, has sold more than 930,000 copies.
Adult nonfiction sales increased 1.7%, led by two memoirs. The late Matthew Perry’s Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing was in the top spot, selling over 60,000 copies, followed by The Woman in Me by Britney Spears, which sold more than 43,000 copies.
Juvenile fiction sales fell 4.9% last week. Jeff Kinney’s newest Wimpy Kid title, No Brainer, easily remained in the top spot, selling just over 71,000 copies, followed by two Christmas books, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh by Mo Willems and Little Blue Truck’s Christmas by Alice Schertle, which each sold about 21,000 copies.
