Potter Ends Ten Year Run on NY Times Best-Seller List

After over nine and a half years, and less than a year since the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Harry Potter books have ended their reign on the New York Times Best-Seller list. Sorcerer's Stone first appeared on the list back on December 27, 1998. Within a year and a half, the top three places on the hardcover fiction list were held by the only three books Potter books in publication.

With Goblet of Fire on the way, the best-seller list was split into adult and children's categories in order to make room for new titles, which the Potter books were overshadowing.

After the release of Order of the Phoenix the list underwent another change. A category for children’s “series” books was added, ignoring the sales of individual titles and instead tracked each series as a whole. The Potter books were shifted to this category.

With the release of the paperback edition of Deathly Hallows and the release of three more movies, it can be expected that the books will creep back up onto the list, but this is just another sign of the end of an era.