Sarah J. Maas's New ACOTAR Novel Sells 958,195 Hardcovers in First Week
Sarah J. Maas's fantasy novel A Court of Splintered Harmony sold 958,195 hardcover copies in its first week on sale, according to the sales tracker Circana BookScan. Publishers Marketplace reported the figure on 5 November 2026. That is just under one million hardbacks, the stiff-covered edition most readers buy first.
BookScan is the standard scoreboard for US print sales. It collects data from retailers, so publishers, agents and bestseller lists all rely on it. The novel is the sixth book in Maas's series known by its initials, ACOTAR, which follows a young woman drawn into the magical courts of the Fae.
Bloomsbury, the publisher, released the US hardback first edition on 27 October 2026. It runs to 352 pages. Bloomsbury also said the book sold 1.7 million copies globally in preorders and first-day sales, according to The Guardian. The same newspaper reported that the book became the fastest-selling adult fantasy novel in the UK. A preorder is a copy bought before the publication date, and first-day sales count copies sold in the first 24 hours.
The first-week hardback figure sits alongside another large week in the same genre. Rebecca Yarros's ONYX STORM, in its Wing and Claw Collection edition, sold 857,802 hardcovers in its opening week, also according to BookScan. Yarros already holds BookScan's record for the fastest-selling adult title. The original ONYX STORM, released in early 2025, moved 1,288,300 hardcovers across its deluxe and standard editions in its first week. Maas's figure is well below that record, but it is higher than the Wing and Claw number.
For bookshops, a week like this means a rush of customers and a fast-moving stock. For publishers, it sets a benchmark for how quickly a long-running series can still find new buyers. For readers, it means that a lot of people walked into a shop or clicked a button on the same day and bought the same book.
Any sales figure comes with limits. BookScan tracks retail sales it can see, so it does not count every copy sold, and it does not show how many of those books were read.
