8.3 million Potters moved in first 24 hours

According to the WSJ, Scholastic estimates U.S. sales of the final installment of Harry Potter to be 8.3 million copies during its first 24 hours. Borders reports first-day sales of 1.2 million copies (compared to 850K of the previous book), and Amazon says it has now shipped 1.3 million copies of the 2.2 million pre-orders that it received.

As I've noted before, I'm not a Potter fan, but I do hope the extra foot traffic provides a boost to book retailers. My local Barnes & Noble was busier than usual this past Saturday evening, which was nearly a day after the book's embargo ended.