It is no secret that the Harry Potter series is a multi-billion dollar empire, but the release of Harry Potter's final journey broke record sales around the world. The seventh in the series sold 8.3 million copies in the U.S. and 2.65 million in Britain on it's Saturday debut alone, according to the publisher, Scholastic Corporation. An executive from the publisher compared the excitement, anticipation, and frankly hysteria of those who attended the midnight release parties to that of the Beatles' first visit to the states. 

The Harry Potter series has sold more than 325 million books worldwide since 1997, making it the biggest children's book series ever, according to Bloomberg. Deathly Hallows topped 2005's Half Blood Prince as the fastest selling book in history. Official figures of it's first week of sales will be released soon.

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