Harry Potter and the Cursed Child beats Fifty Shades of Grey to be named fastest selling book of the decade

JK Rowling's latest Hogwarts story is also on track to become the bestselling script of all-time

Jamie Parker and Sam Clemmett as Harry and Albus Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Manuel Harlan)

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has beaten Fifty Shades of Grey to become the fastest-selling book of the decade.

The script for JK Rowling’s new West End play has sold over 680,000 copies in the UK in just three days followings its midnight release on Sunday 31 July.

Cursed Child, which follows Potter’s young son Albus to Hogwarts for the first time, has smashed through the previous record set by EL James’s erotic novel, which shifted 664,478 copies in a week in 2012.

It is the fastest-selling book since Rowling’s last wizarding novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which sold an incredible 1.8 million copies (plus a further 780,000 adult editions) in July 2007.

Set 19 years after the events of the seventh and final book, Cursed Child brings back Potter, now grown up and an employee at the Ministry of Magic. Harry and his wife Ginny Weasley wave their youngest son Albus Severus, named after former Hogwarts headmaster Professor Dumbledore and Potions guru Professor Snape, off to their old wizarding school. Once there, Albus struggles with the weight of his family legacy and goes to extreme and dangerous lengths to right the wrongs of the past.

The two-part play stretches over five hours and was co-devised by creator J.K. Rowling, written by Jack Thorne and directed by John Tiffany. It opened for preview performances at London’s Palace Theatre in June, with the embargo on press reviews finally lifted last week. The play earned rave reviews across the board.

Kate Skipper, buying director at Waterstones, said: “Our sales for the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script book have been phenomenal; we saw our biggest first day figures since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in 2007 and after just two days, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is already our biggest-selling hardback since Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol in 2009.

“By the end of this first week, we expect to exceed The Lost Symbol sales and to match the lifetime sales of our bestselling script book ever, An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley. There’s no doubt about it; this will be our biggest book of the year.”

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child officially opens on Saturday 30 July in two parts

The special rehearsal edition of the script, available in hardback for £20, will be replaced by the definitive edition in early in 2017. This later edition will contain the final script and final stage directions and annotations, as seen on opening night, and will include extra content such as writing from the play’s creative team.

Producers recently announced that a further 250,000 tickets for the play will be released on sale on 4 August at 11am, for shows up until 10 December next year.

With additional reporting by Press Association