Spare, the memoir of Prince Harry, has become the fastest-selling nonfiction book of all time, confirmed by the Guinness World Records on Friday, after the book sold 1.43 million copies on its first day.
The sales outperformed Penguin Random House’s previous first-day non-fiction record, for US President Barack Obama’s memoir, A Promised Land, in 2020, and Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming in 2018. A Promised Land had sold 8,87,000 copies on the debut day.
Penguin Random House (PRH) UK said the book had sold 7,50,000 copies in the UK across all formats – hardbacks, ebooks and audiobooks – in its first week. Of these, 400,000 copies were on its first day on sale in the UK.
Spare is in its second printing after selling the first two million copies. The high sales came despite excerpts of the book being leaked after Spanish-language copies were mistakenly put up for sale in Spain ahead of the release day.
In Spare, Prince Harry lays bare intimate details about his life and his family. It sold 1.4 million English-language copies in all formats in the US, the UK and Canada on release day, according to Penguin Random House.
The book also remains No 1 on the Amazon bestsellers chart, and is the site’s bestselling nonfiction title.
