The Duke of Sussex’s autobiography is the fastest-selling non-fiction book ever, recording figures of 400,000 copies so far across hardback, ebook and audio formats on its first day of publication, its publishers have said.
Prince Harry’s memoir Spare accidentally went on sale in Spain five days prior to its official release, while pages of the tell-all book were leaked to various media outlets.
The ghost-written autobiography was released officially on Tuesday and has reportedly flown off bookstore shelves.
Larry Finlay, managing director of Transworld Penguin Random House, said; “We always knew this book would fly but it is exceeding even our most bullish expectations.
“As far as we know, the only books to have sold more in their first day are those starring the other Harry (Potter).”
The memoir has dominated the news cycle in recent days, with the duke making a series of TV appearances on both UK and US broadcasters to promote the highly anticipated book.
Major demand was expected for the Duke of Sussex’s book, however, queues appeared sparse outside bookshops in central London on Tuesday.
The memoir had already ranked first on many bestseller lists ahead of its release date.
Spare details a series of shocking allegations about Prince Harry’s life inside the royal family and his conflict with the British press.
Among the most attention-grabbing extracts from Spare are retellings of an alleged physical fight between Prince Harry and Prince William, his use of illegal drugs, the guilt he felt while mourning his mother Princess Diana, and disagreements between Kate and Meghan.
The Duke of Sussex discussed a raft of the claims made in Spare during a series of primetime TV interviews last week.
In one of two televised interviews on Sunday, the prince opened up about his decision to publish the “personal and moving” memoir to ITV’s Tom Bradbury.
The 90-minute programme drew an average TV audience of 4.1 million, based on overnight figures released by ITV, making it the channel’s highest rating for a factual programme for more than a year.
Harry also conducted three more interviews in the lead-up to the book’s publication, including a sit-down with Anderson Cooper for 60 Minutes on CBS News and Michael Strahan of Good Morning America, which have already aired.
Another interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show on CBS is due to be broadcast in the early hours of Wednesday morning, UK time.
