Over 70 million George R R Martin books sold

[Brian G Turner]

In an interview in the Guardian with UK editor Jane Johnson, she says that George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books have now sold over 70 million copies in 40 different languages:

Game of Thrones: an epic publishing story

@Werthead puts that into perspective here:

The Wertzone: Sales of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE pass 70 million on its 20th birthday

 

[BAYLOR]

Impressive .

 

[zmunkz]

70 million books sold must come to, what, somewhere between half a billion and a billion in sales? Certainly impressive!

Not that it is a competition, but it is interesting to see how some of the fantasy giants compare. Tolkien holds quite a lead with $9 billion in book sales, and $10.6 billion in box office / merchandise sales. Though, he also has quite a head start.

Then Harry Potter weights in at $7.7 billion in book sales and $17.1 billion in box office / other sales. I wonder if Harry Potter is the largest fantasy franchise of all time... trying to think if there is another one I'm missing.

(EDIT: I didn't think of star wars because it wasn't originally a book, but I suppose there have been tons of books set in the world since. That franchise has made $1.8 billion in books, and $28.4 billion in everything else.)

 

[Steven Sorrels]

zmunkz, from what I understand, the only book that has sold more copies than Harry Potter is the Bible.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I just thought I'd mention that, despite his impressive sales to date, according to Wikipedia:

Martin’s publishers initially expected A Game of Thrones to be a best-seller,but the first installment did not even reach any lower positions in bestseller list. This left Martin unsurprised, as it is “a fool’s game to think anything is going to be successful or to count on it”. However, the book slowly won the passionate advocacy of independent booksellers and the book’s popularity grew by word of mouth. The series’ popularity skyrocketed in subsequent volumes, with the second and third volume making the The New York Times Best Seller lists in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

So it still took 8 years for the ASoIaF books to become bestsellers.

 

[DZara]

So it still took 8 years for the ASoIaF books to become bestsellers.

That's a long burn, for sure.

 

[Bick]

That's a lot of disappointed people when after another 10 years of waiting around Martin drops dead before finishing it.