Amazon mines sales data for Harry Potter trends

Nobody wants to be in the Harry Potter House Hufflepuff, Amazon made it official today, as it released fresh data about the UK’s buying habits of all things Potter to mark the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Bloomsbury).

Its data showed the franchise's scarlet-and-gold Gryffindor merchandise was 11 times more popular with Amazon.co.uk customers than Hufflepuff products. After Gryffindor, Slytherin’s green-and-silver products came in second, Ravenclaw third and Hufflepuff fourth.​

Amazon's findings, featuring new data from across music, film and merchandise, follows the news yesterday (22nd June) that Bloomsbury and Pottermore will be publishing two new books this autumn for the British Library exhibition “Harry Potter: A History of Magic”.

To date, 180 different versions of J K Rowling's Harry Potter books have sold on Amazon.co.uk over the past 20 years, between them accruing over 17,000 five-star reviews, with each title in the septology amassing over 5,500 five-star reviews apiece. Amazon UK's print and digital book sales of Harry Potter jumped 140% between 2015 and 2016, due in part to the release of playscript Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Little, Brown), the company said.

Other findings from the retailer showed Dumbledore is the only character in the franchise to feature in the top five most highlighted passages on Kindle, while it is possible the most hardened of Potter-heads reside in either Southampton or Bristol; said the retailer. Southampton lays claim to the most Kindle downloads of Harry Potter books per capita while Bristol residents have bought the most Potter merchandise of any UK city.

Amazon’s bestselling non-book-based product of the franchise is the Complete 8-Film Collection (with enough copies sold to watch for 975 years straight). The final instalment of the film series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2", is the nation’s favourite film, according to the retailer's sales figures since the films were first available to buy on Amazon. The most streamed Harry Potter track on Prime Music and Amazon Music Unlimited since launch is the enchanting "Hedwig’s Theme", though, which opened the first film.

“The wizarding world of Harry Potter has captured the hearts of the nation and the world for the last 20 years, and we are thrilled to be able to celebrate the anniversary by sharing some of the fascinating facts and figures on British buying habits and the nation’s favourite wizard," Simon Johnson, director of media at Amazon UK commented. "From books to film, music to merchandise, the world of Hogwarts and Harry Potter is just a click away. Here’s to another 20 years of a nation potty about Potter.”