7.9 mln Harry Potter books sold within 24 hours

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince established a new record in publishing business by having 7.9 mln copies of the title sold in the US within 24 hours of release. 850K copies sold in Borders stores within the first day. Amazon.com told Bloomberg it set a pre-order record of more than 1.5 mln copies worldwide, a 7.7% increase from two years prior. US pre-orders totaled more than 919,000, or 16% more.