Have book sales for A Song of Ice and Fire finally surpassed The Wheel of Time?

According to a report from The Wertzone, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels have recently surpassed in sales author Robert Jordan’s much-beloved Wheel of Time series. If this holds true, then A Song of Ice and Fire will become the most popular fantasy series published since J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novels were published from in 1954 and 1955.

After Jordan’s passing in 2007, The Wheel of Time series had sold 44 million copies in North America and 70 million worldwide. After his protege Brandon Sanderson took on the important task of completing the final three books, global sales reached upward of 80 million by 2014, with projected estimates as high as 85 million.

A Song of Ice and Fire has sold 45 million copies in the U.S. and an astronomical 90 million copies worldwide. This puts Martin ahead of his friend Jordan, and of the late Sir Terry Pratchett, whose comic fantasy Discworld series has sold more than 85 million copies worldwide.

Jordan’s first Wheel of Time novel — The Eye of the World — was published in 1990 by Tor Books and sold 40,000 copies of its first run in hardcover. Martin’s first offering in the Song of Ice and Fire series, 1995’s A Game of Thrones,  didn’t sell that well at first. In fact, It wasn’t until the novel’s paperback release that it started to really get noticed. That paperback release, interestingly enough, had Jordan’s own words on the cover:

"A Game of Thrones grabs hold and won’t let go. It’s brilliant."

Jordan and Martin were great friends until Jordan’s death. Martin even paid his homage homage in his novels:

• In A Storm of Swords, Myria of House Jordayne of the Tor is among the Dornish nobles that accompany Oberyn Martell to King’s Landing. Robert Jordan’s works was published by Tor Books for most of his career.
• In Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, Lady Rohanne Webber of Coldmoat has her hair tied in a long braid. She is often described as tugging on it in moments of stress, which recalls Nynaeve al’Meara, one of the main protagonists of Jordan’s series.
• In A Feast for Crows, Rodrik “The Reader” Harlaw mentions an Archmaester named Rigney who believed that history was a wheel. Robert Jordan’s real name was James Rigney.

A Song of Ice and Fire owes a lot of its success to the massively popular Game of Thrones on HBO. However, Amazon is now developing a Wheel of Time series that could give Jordan’s work a sales boost. The battle wages on.

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