Brandon Sanderson hits 50 million sales

Brandon Sanderson has confirmed that he has now sold over 50 million copies of his novels. We only had confirmation earlier this year that he'd reached 45 million, so this is an impressive achievement.

Brandon's beard grows more powerful with every dollar you give him.

Back in January 2024, I assembled the latest incarnation of my "SFF All-Time Sales List," which had sales figures of 40 million for Brandon (in 29th place). These were very healthy figures.

The updated figures for Sanderson would move him up to around 23rd place, just behind Diana Gabaldon, Casandra Clare, Robert Heinlein, Richard Adams and Terry Brooks. Very healthy and impressive company to be in. Unsurprising as in the meantime he's released his long-awaited fifth Stormlight Archive novel, Wind and Truth, short novel Isles of the Emberdark, and is now working on a return to his perennially popular Mistborn sequence. He's also just published a short story collection, Tailored Realities, and has confirmed a new surprise novel for next year, The Fires of December.

Given a widely-reported decline in industry sales for secondary world fantasy, apart from legacy authors like George R.R. Martin and deceased legends like Tolkien and Pratchett, Sanderson's achievement is highly impressive, and likely to explode further when adaptations of his work are made.