Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. On 21 July 2007, all editions but the American were released at a minute past midnight (00:01) BST; the American and Canadian editions were released at a minute past midnight (00:01), local time.[4][5] It was released globally in 93 countries.[6] The book reached the top spot on both the Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble best-seller lists just a few hours after the date of publication was announced on 1 February 2007.[7]

The book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, leading to the long-awaited final struggle between Harry Potter and his allies, and the ever-more-powerful and influential Voldemort and his allies, the Death Eaters.

Retailers such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Borders reported that more orders had been placed for this book than for any other in history,[8] and American publisher Scholastic announced an unprecedented initial print run of 12 million copies.[9] The book broke online sales records; Amazon.com stated that advanced orders of the book reached 2.2 million worldwide. [10] The figures broke the record set by the sixth book of 1.5 million. [11]

Bloomsbury said that 2.7 million copies of the book were sold in the U.K. within 24 hours of its release, breaking the previous record of 2.0 million set by the sixth book. [12] Scholastic reported that 8.3 million copies were sold in the U.S. on the book's first day of sales, breaking the record of 6.9 million held by the sixth book.[13] Borders reported that its 1,200 stores worldwide sold 1.2 million copies on the book's first day of sales, the highest single-day sales of any title in Borders history. In comparison, Borders sold 850,000 copies of the sixth book on its first day.[14]