Guinness World Records 2023 scores UK and Ireland Christmas number one Nielsen BookData reveals
The latest edition of the annual Guinness World Records has become the official Christmas Number One bestseller in both the UK and Ireland, Nielsen BookData can reveal, the first time this has happened since 2017.
Guinness World Records 2023 sold 5,072 copies in Ireland last week, taking the top spot in the Irish bestseller chart ahead of Jeff Kinney‘s latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid adventure, Diper Överlöde, and Bono’s autobiography, Surrender.
In the UK, the book sold 45,748 copies in the week ending 17 December 2022, and tops the Christmas chart for the first time since 2014.
Ireland Top 10 bestsellers: week ending 17 December 2022
- Guinness World Records 2023 (Guinness World Records) 5,072 copies
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde (Jeff Kinney) 3,982
- Surrender (Bono) 3,934
- An Irish Folklore Treasury (John Creedon) 3,933
- Forever Home (Graham Norton) 3,627
- Time and Tide (Charlie Bird and Ray Burke) 3,067
- It Ends With Us (Colleen Hoover) 3,035
- It Starts With Us (Colleen Hoover) 2,951
- Quinn (Trevor Birney) 2,748
- Listen to the Land Speak (Manchán Magan) 2,632
Recent Ireland Christmas Number Ones
2012: A Week in Winter (Maeve Binchy)
2013: My Autobiography (Alex Ferguson)
2014: The Test (Brian O’Driscoll)
2015: Grandma’s Great Escape (David Walliams)
2016: The Battle (Paul O’Connell)2017: Bad Dad (David Walliams)
2018: The Ice Monster (David Walliams)
2019: Ordinary Joe (Joe Schmidt)
2020: Old Ireland in Colour (John Breslin & Sarah-Anne Buckley)
2021: Guinness World Records 2022
Printed book sales in Ireland last week totalled €8.8m—down 11% versus the comparative week last year. Year-to-date sales in Ireland total €155m—up 1% versus 2021 and up 18% versus 2019.
The UK Christmas Bestsellers
TV star and novelist Richard Osman narrowly missed out on scoring his second Christmas Number One in the UK. His third Thursday Murder Club novel, The Bullet That Missed, was the second most popular purchase with book buyers last week, selling 45,011 copies.
TV chef Jamie Oliver, who has topped the bestseller lists on Christmas Day five times since official sales records began in the late 1990s, takes third place in the UK chart, with his latest cookbook, One.
Since hitting shelves in September, Guinness World Records 2023 has sold 273,000 copies in the UK, taking £2.7m through bookshop tills. Since the turn of the century, more than £100m has been spent on Guinness World Records publications in the UK, which have racked up sales of more than 11m copies.
UK Top 10 bestsellers: week ending 17 December 2022
- Guinness World Records 2023 (Guinness World Records) 45,748 copies
- The Bullet That Missed (Richard Osman) 45,011
- One (Jamie Oliver) 32,897
- Pinch of Nom: Enjoy (Kay and Kate Allinson) 32,769
- The Satsuma Complex (Bob Mortimer) 29,643
- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse: The Animated Story (Charlie Mackesy) 29,223
- Interesting Facts for Curious Minds (Jordan Moore) 22,662
- Private Eye Annual 2022 (Ian Hislop) 22,258
- Diddly Squat: ‘Til the Cows Come Home (Jeremy Clarkson) 21,466
- Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait (Gyles Brandreth) 21,272
Recent UK Christmas number ones
2012: Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals (Jamie Oliver)
2013: My Autobiography (Alex Ferguson)
2014: Guinness World Records
2015: How it Works: The Husband (Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris)
2016: The Midnight Gang (David Walliams)
2017: Bad Dad (David Walliams)
2018: Becoming (Michelle Obama)
2019: The Beast of Buckingham Palace (David Walliams)
2020: The Thursday Murder Club (Richard Osman)
2021: Pinch of Nom: Comfort Food (Kate and Kay Allinson)
Hazel Kenyon, director of book research at Nielsen BookData congratulated Guinness World Records on topping the Christmas bestseller charts for the second time. “We’re delighted to celebrate all the authors, publishers and booksellers and the hard work they put in at this important book buying time of year.”
A grand total of £78.7m was spent on printed books in the UK last week—a rate of £468,000 spent every hour. Spending was down 8.7% versus the comparative week last year, but up 8.6% versus the same week in 2019.
Nielsen BookScan point-of-sales information reveals that 1,154 different books sold more than 1,000 copies at UK bookshops last week. Former Christmas chart-topper David Walliams’ latest novel, Spaceboy, was one of 40 books to sell more than 10,000 copies, and was the bestselling children’s book of the week.
Printed book sales in 2022 to date stand at £1.7bn in value terms, up 10.8% versus the comparative pre-pandemic period in 2019, with volume sales totalling 197m, up 11.4% versus 2019.
