It’s official... JK Rowling is now more popular than Shakespeare: Her new Harry Potter play is the biggest-selling script since records began raking in £870 every MINUTE!

• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has made £8.76million in seven days
• Eager fans snapped up 847,886 copies of the publication in one week
• Romeo and Juliet is a distant second, selling 127,726 copies since 1998
• It is also the biggest title of 2016 and the fourth-fastest selling of all time

Her status as the queen of children's books is undisputed.

But now JK Rowling has done the unthinkable – she has knocked William Shakespeare off his throne.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the latest instalment of the hit series, has become the biggest-selling edition of a play script since records began, making £8.76 million in just seven days.

In the first week since it went on sale, eager fans have snapped up 847,886 copies of the Little, Brown Book Group publication, spending the equivalent of almost £870 per minute.

A Penguin Classics edition of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a distant second on the list, having sold 127,726 copies since 1998.

The play, co-written by the Edinburgh author and Jack Thorne, an English screenwriter, takes up the story of Harry Potter 19 years after leaving Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

It is also the biggest title of the year and the fourth-fastest selling of all time – beaten only by Miss Rowling's last three Potter books. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 1.84 million copies in July 2007 while Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince sold 1.47 million copies in June 2003. The third biggest selling is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which sold 867,000 in July 2005.

And with a rare first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone expected to fetch up to £20,000 when it goes up for auction at Bonhams in London in November, getting your hands on a copy of the play fast might not be a bad idea.

David Shelley, CEO of Little, Brown Book Group said: 'This is way beyond our most optimistic expectations and is testament to the passion readers have for JK Rowling's wizarding world, as well as to the amazing reception the play itself has had.'

A spokesperson for Nielsen BookScan which records the book sales said: 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has soundly jumped into fourth place for the bestselling single week of any book since records began with 847,886 units sold for a value of £8.76 million.' 

The West End version of the Cursed Child has been a monumental success, seeing fans queue throughout the night for tickets. 

In the lead up to the publication Nielsen Bookscan reported signs that the novels in the original series had increased in popularity.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has made it into the Top 100 chart for the week, with the Philosopher's Stone and The Chamber of Secrets coming in at positions 32 and 58 from last week's 44 and 73 respectively, a spokesperson said.

This can also be said for Fantastic Beasts and The Prisoner of Azkaban which moved to position 59 and 81 from 83 and 115 respectively. Overall, the entire series as well as the companions are all in the Top 200 for week ending 6 August, excluding special releases.

The spokesperson said: 'This increase cannot have been hurt by the unique pairing of the companion play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child that premiered at the West end on 30 July and has been notorious for selling out within hours of tickets being on sale.'