The Hunger Games vs. Fifty Shades of Grey: One Best-Selling Book Trilogy Just Topped 50 Million Copies

YA novels cross publishing milestone as fervor for the big-screen version of Catching Fire ramps up

By Alexis L. Loinaz Jul 19, 2012 8:15 PMTags
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So just how hungry are fans for The Hunger Games?

Ravenous, it seems.

Suzanne Collins' popular YA book trilogy, which spawned the juggernaut $680 million–grossing Jennifer Lawrence blockbuster, has now passed a major publishing milestone, putting in on track to become one of the top—if not the top—best sellers of 2012.

So just how many books are in print?

According to its publisher, Scholastic, the trilogy now has over 50 million copies in both print and digital formats.

To put that in perspective, that number has more than doubled since the beginning of 2012 when there were 23.5 million copies in print, no doubt boosted by the movie's manic promo blitz—and the glowing critical kudos that followed.

That translates into 23 million copies of The Hunger Games, 14 million copies of its sequel, Catching Fire, and 13 million copies of the finale, Mockingjay. The books have now been a fixture on The New York Times best-seller list for 200 consecutive weeks. Whew!

And Fifty Shades? It's not doing so bad, either. The series, which got its start as fan fiction and an e-book, was picked up by Vintage earlier this year and just surpassed the 20 million mark thus far.

MORE: Hunger Games—Philip Seymour Hoffman Snags Major Role in Catching Fire

"Readers across the nation are captivated by the rich world and strong characters Suzanne Collins has created," Scholastic president Ellie Berger said in a statement. "It's thrilling to see teen and adult readers enthralled by the same story and engaged in conversation about these books."

Don't expect those sales figures to slow down anytime soon: Production is ramping up on the big-screen version of Catching Fire, which recently snagged Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amanda Plummer for key roles.

The filmmakers have also yet to announce casting on a fan favorite character, the dreamy Tribute Finnick Odair, which should keep fans' appetites for Hunger going very, very strong.