Jack Reacher beats Harry Potter as Amazon reveals bestselling book series

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher titles are the bestselling book series of all time on Amazon.co.uk, followed by self-published author L J Ross, while the Harry Potter books only rank fifth.

The online retail giant released its rankings this week, which are based on sales and downloads across physical and digital books up to May 2022. 

Amazon said the Potter series (Bloomsbury Children’s) was beaten by The DCI Ryan Mysteries from L J Ross (Kindle), the Roy Grace books by Peter James (Pan) and the Detective Kim Stone Crime thrillers by Angela Marsons (Bookouture). Child’s Reacher series, published by Transworld, was top of the pile in a list that appears to reflect the power of screen adaptations and e-books. 

Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Puffin) came sixth, followed by George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (HarperVoyager) and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (Transworld). Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly (Orion) came ninth and The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffrey Archer (Macmillan) were 10th. 

The data differs to Nielsen BookScan’s, which shows the Harry Potter series, including Cursed Child and various spin-offs, has sold a total of 41.6 million print copies for £340m in the UK. The original seven books are in the overall top 12 bestselling books of all time and have shifted 19.6 million copies between them. In comparison Jack Reacher is on 15.3 million for £95.2m.  

Amazon’s data also showed The Philosopher’s Stone is the bestselling book in Rowling’s series, followed by Chamber of Secrets, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Deathly Hallows, Half-Blood Prince and Prisoner of Azkaban. Amazon released the data ahead of the 25th anniversary of the publication of The Philosopher’s Stone. 

Lisa de Meyer, country manager for Amazon UK Books, said: “There are numerous brilliant book series that have captured the nation’s imagination and inspired TV shows and films in their wake, with the Harry Potter series being one of the most successful British series ever. It’s great to see the range of books in our top 10 list, including an author that used Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing to share their work with the world.”