Maas Hardcover Sells 958 195 Copies in Its First US Week

A Court of Splintered Harmony sold 958 195 hardcover copies in one week in the États-Unis, Circana BookScan figures show, ActuaLitté reported on 9 November 2026. Nicolas Gary's account calls that the biggest book launch of 2026 on that market, for a single edition. The novel is the sixth in Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series, which the report shortens to ACOTAR. It went out on 27 October.

The BookScan comparison is physical copies only. ActuaLitté reported that it leaves out ebooks and audiobooks, and that it should not be read as a worldwide all-format total. On the trade chart Gary cites, this one title outsold the next 78 books combined.

That opening week is already enough to put the novel fourth among cumulative bestsellers for 2026, ActuaLitté reported. Ahead of it sit Theo of Golden by Allen Levi, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros. Of those four, only the Maas novel and the Yarros novel are new this year.

The Royaume-Uni record, as the report gives it

Sales in the Royaume-Uni came to 188 914 between 27 October and 31 October, ActuaLitté reported. According to The Guardian, as that report relays it, the week is the best start on record for an adult fantasy novel since the count began in 1998.

The previous mark belonged to Rebecca Yarros. Onyx Storm reached 155 141 in 2025, ActuaLitté reported. The same account says the Maas week is also the best first week for adult fiction there since Harper Lee's 2015 novel, which the report titles Va et poste une sentinelle.

Shops got ready. Waterstones ran 60 midnight openings and 80 other events, ActuaLitté reported.

Do not add the launch-day total on top

Bloomsbury had already logged 1,7 million sales of print and digital editions together, preorders and launch day included, ActuaLitté reported. The report places those copies in the États-Unis, Canada, the Royaume-Uni and Australie, in English. That 1,7 million is not to be added to the weekly counts, ActuaLitté reported, because the dates and the territories overlap. A release-day figure and a first-week print figure are not two piles of books.

The gap since the previous volume is long. A Court of Silver Flames came out in 2021, ActuaLitté reported. Maas had put out a new book in the series every year from 2015 to 2018. The quiet years did not empty the backlist. In 2024 the catalogue still passed nine million copies in the États-Unis, with no new title, the same report said.

Why Bloomsbury wanted this week

The first half of the 2026-2027 year came in lower. Revenue was off by 5%. Adjusted profit before tax was off by 30%, ActuaLitté reported. The house kept its full-year outlook anyway, betting on two books from its lead author. Preorders for the pair were called "exceptionnelles", the report says, and the house also expects readers to pick up the older volumes again.

In France, La Martinière Fictions has sold 13.964 since 28 October, in Marion Segui's translation, ActuaLitté reported. The whole of the French list has passed 428.000 copies, the same account said.

A seventh volume, A Court of Forgotten Melody, is due on 12 January 2027, ActuaLitté reported. Both novels fall in the same financial year, which the report says ends at the end of February.

The week-one hardcover number and the launch-day number answer different questions. BookScan's 958 195 is US print, one edition, seven days. The 1,7 million mixes preorders, launch day, print and digital, across four markets. Gary's piece is explicit that you do not stack them.