Potter sales soar to six million

Sales of the new Harry Potter book have got off to an astonishing start, with about six million copies sold worldwide over the weekend.

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix broke records in Britain yesterday, today it was the turn of US booksellers.

JK Rowling's American publisher Scholastic said it sold an unprecedented five million copies of Phoenix in its first day alone - nearly all of its record-breaking first print run of 6.8 million. Scholastic's president Barbara Marcus hailed the sales as "a new milestone in publishing history", adding: "It is extraordinary to publish this magical book which is being read by millions of children and adults across the country at this very moment."

In the UK, copies sold at a rate of approximately 500 a minute during the first hour of release - with estimated sales this weekend of one million. Official sales figures will be revealed later today. They will almost certainly establish JK Rowling's latest work as the fastest-selling book in British history, breaking the record set by her last novel, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire.

Leslie Miles, Waterstones' marketing director, said: "We knew this would be big - but it has exceeded everybody's expectations. In the shops it's been crazy, just like Christmas." Ms Miles said: "On Saturday alone we sold around three times the numbers of Order Of The Phoenix than we sold of the last book in the course of a week.

As launches go, in my experience-this one simply stands out on its own." Philip Bells of Blackwells in Oxford said : "I've been in the business for 18 years and I've never seen anything like this." WH Smith's said it was selling more than eight copies a second, or nearly 30,000 an hour across the country. Asda opened 136 supermarkets late for the launch and reported sales of over 150,000. Ottakar's, with 117 shops across the country, reported sales of over 120,000 copies over the weekend.

Its spokesman John Howells said: "For the book trade launching Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix is the equivalent of Matrix 3, Star Wars 3 and Lord Of The Rings 3 all being released on the same day."

Half a million Harry Potter fans had the novel delivered to their homes. A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: "We've spent weeks planning how to handle the deliveries and our distribution staff have been working flat-out."

The vast majority of the delivered Harry Potter books - 420,000 - were despatched by online retailer Amazon, which is selling the book at £8.49, half the publisher's recommended-price and £3.50 less than most booksellers-Amazon has now confirmed Harry Potter-And The Order Of The Phoenix as its biggest ever product release.

Amazon.co.uk managing director Robin Terrell told the Standard last night: "There is obviously a lot more excitement around this book than there was around the last.

"I think the reasons are twofold; there have been three years of waiting since the last book and we have also seen the films released, which has opened up the world of Harry Potter to a whole new audience."