Sidemen smash Super Thursday charts

Sidemen: The Book (Coronet), authored by the supergroup of gaming YouTubers, has become the biggest-selling title of Super Thursday 2016, via Nielsen BookScan, as it swiped the Hardback Non-Fiction number one from the hotly-tipped Jamie Oliver’s Christmas Cookbook (Michael Joseph), Phil Collins’ Not Dead Yet (Century) and Jason Hazeley & Joel Morris’ latest Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups titles.

The Sidemen, which includes former Top 50 YouTuber KSI who charted last year with his book I Am a Bellend (Orion), sold 26,436 copies to chart third overall. It is the second year in a row that Super Thursday’s biggest title has been a YouTuber book—Dan & Phil’s The Amazing Book is Not on Fire (Ebury) shifted 26,744 to take the Hardback Non-Fiction number one in October 2015.

However, the festive season is a marathon, not a sprint, and Bill Bryson’s The Road to Little Dribbling (Doubleday) emerged as the bestselling Super Thursday release across Christmas 2015—so veteran chart-hanger (and five-time Christmas number one) Jamie may just be biding his time.

There was no signal failure on The Girl on the Train’s line, as it once again topped the Official UK Top 50, according to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market. It sold 31,661 copies for its 11th non-consecutive week in the number one spot. The film tie-in edition charted below, in second place, for a third straight week. The gap between the two is rapidly closing—just 2,856 copies between them.

Peter James’ Love You Dead (Pan) took fourth place overall, shifting 18,524 copies. Martina Cole’s Betrayal (Headline) yanked the Original Fiction number one from Bernard Cornwell's The Flame Bearer (HarperCollins), a return to form after the hardback of Get Even narrowly missed out on the category top spot in autumn 2015.

Jamie’s Christmas Cookbook took 19th place, with 8,384 copies sold—a lower first-week volume than both Super Food Family Classics, published in July, and 2015’s Everyday Super Food. But with 62 shopping days still to go before Christmas, it shouldn’t be considered a turkey yet.

Of the new Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups releases, How it Works: The Cat (Michael Joseph) has emerged as an early frontrunner, hitting 20th place and shifting 8,321 copies—a hefty 1,389 copies more than How it Works: The Dog. Last year, How it Works: The Husband was ahead from the outset and went on to take the 2015 Christmas number one. Maybe The Cat will follow its lead and dig its claws in.