Harry Potter and the Record-Breaking Release

Millions of speed-readers now know the truth about the fate of their favorite boy wizard.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final tome in the spell-casting series, smashed records over the weekend, to become the fastest selling book in history, publisher Scholastic Inc. said Monday.

Within 24 hours of its release Friday at midnight, Deathly Hallows had moved 8.3 million copies in the United States alone, averaging more than 300,000 copies an hour—that's 5,000 a minute.

Deathly Hallows easily edged out J.K. Rowling's last release, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which sold 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours. In Great Britain, Deathly Hallows sold 2.65 million copies, beating out Half-Blood Prince's record of 2 million.

Amazon.com reported that a record 2.2 million preorders had been placed for the book, while Borders notched its highest sales day ever, with 1.2 million Deathly Hallows sold in its 1,200 stores worldwide on the first day of release.

{story from E! news}