The Weekly Scorecard: Tracking Unit Print Sales for Week Ending December 25, 2016

Unit sales of print books jumped 21% in the week ended Dec. 25, 2016, compared to the similar week in 2015, at outlets that report to Nielsen BookScan. The biggest gains came in the juvenile fiction and adult nonfiction segments, which had increases of 25% and 24%, respectively, over the week ended Dec. 27, 2015. The top selling title in the juvenile fiction category was Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down, which sold just under 131,000 copies. Four books by J.K. Rowling were among the six top sellers in the category, with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at #2 on the category list, selling almost 125,000 copies. Altogether, the four Rowling books sold more than 300,000 copies in the week. Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard and The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines were one-two on the adult nonfiction list, selling 129,000 copies and 96,000 copies, respectively. Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run jumped up to #3 on the category list, selling more than 72,000 copies. John Grisham’s The Whistler was the clear favorite in the adult fiction segment in the week, with sales of just under 100,000 copies. Second place Cross the Line by James Patterson sold almost 58,000 copies. Unit sales in the juvenile nonfiction segment rose 13% in the week, led by Roger Priddy’s First 100 Words, which sold almost 41,000 copies.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format

*Totals for 2016 include units sold through Family Christian Stores. No sales through Family Christian are included in 2015.