Top Game of Thrones books stats
- It’s estimated that 90 million ASOIAF books have been sold
- The five books published so far contain more than 1.7 million words
- A Dance with Dragons would take more than 2 days to listen to on audiobook
- The Game of Thrones TV series has earned approximately $3.1 billion
Game of Thrones vs A Song of Ice and Fire
“Game of Thrones” is the HBO TV series and one of the most popular TV series of all time. The series is based on a series of books by George RR Martin called “A Song of Ice and Fire”.
The first of these books is called “A Game of Thrones.”
When was each of the Game of Thrones books published?
George RR Martin has released 47 pieces including short stories, novellas, novels, essays, quotes, reference books, and more.
| Book # | Name | Release date |
| 1 | A Game of Thrones | August 1, 1996 |
| 2 | A Clash of Kings | November 16, 1998 |
| 3 | A Storm of Swords | August 8, 2000 |
| 4 | A Feast for Crows | October 17, 2005 |
| 5 | A Dance with Dragons | July 12, 2011 |
| 6 | The Winds of Winter | Not released yet |
| 7 | A Dream of Spring | Not released yet |
A Song of Ice and Fire sales data
- 90 million ASOIAF books have been sold
- Harper Collins predicted they would sell 5,000 hardback copies of “A Game of Thrones”
- A Clash of Kings was the first book to reach the NYT bestseller list in 2000 at 13th place
- It took until 2005 for George RR Martin to become a number one bestseller
- It’s estimated that 90 million ASOIAF books have been sold
- A TV deal was agreed in 2009 and the show premiered in 2011 at which point the book sales went “stratospheric”
ASOIAF awards
A Game of Thrones
- Ignotius Award, Best Foreign Novel of 2002
A Storm of Swords
- SF Site Readers’ Choice Best SF and Fantasy Book of 2000
A Clash of Kings
- 1999 Nebula Award nomination
- Tops Locus Poll for Best Fantasy Novel of 1999
A Feast for Crows
- 2006 Hugo Award nomination for Best Novel
- 2006 Locus Award nomination for Best Fantasy Novel
A Dance with Dragons
- 2012 World Fantasy Award nomination for Best Novel
- 2012 Hugo Award nomination for Best Novel
- 2012 Locus Award winner for Best Fantasy Novel
Game of Thrones TV Show Stats
- Game of Thrones has earned approx. $3.1 billion
- There were a total of 73 episodes
- 566 characters appeared in the show
- The show had an estimated budget of $1.5 billion
- Key characters were thought to have made as much as $1.2 billion per episode in the final season
- The series and actors have been nominated for 743 awards and won 269, including 59 Emmys
Writing ASOIAF
- George R.R. Martin started writing A Game of Thrones in 1991 and was published in 1996
- Although his first novel was published in 1977
- 5 books have been published in the A Song of Ice and Fire series
- Martin originally planned the series to be a trilogy but realized he couldn’t fit the entire story in 3 books
- There was a bidding war for the UK and US rights after Martin sent publishers the first 150 pages of the first book in the series
- HarperCollins paid the largest advance for a work of fantasy ever paid in the UK at the time
- It was also picked up by Bantam Books in the USA
- The original covers were too fantasy-genre-specific, sales picked up after the cover was changed to something that appealed more to the mainstream
Deaths in A Song of Ice and Fire
| Book | Deaths |
| A Game of Thrones | 61 |
| A Clash of Kings | 88 |
| A Storm of Swords | 97 |
| A Feast for Crows | 27 |
| A Dance with Dragons | 62 |
| Total | 335 |
- There are 335 deaths in the first 5 books of the series
- This works out as a death roughly every 35 minutes for more than 8 days straight in the audiobook version
- A Storm of Swords is the deadliest book so far with 97 deaths and a death every 10 pages
- However, A Clash of Kings averages a death every 9 pages
- A Game of Thrones averages a death every 12 pages
- Followed by A Dance with Dragons with a death every 17 pages
- A Feast for Crows is the least deadly with a death every 28 pages on average
Length of A Song of Ice and Fire books
| Book | Pages | Chapters | Words | Audiobook |
| A Game of Thrones | 694 | 73 | 292,727 | 33 h 53 min |
| A Clash of Kings | 768 | 70 | 318,903 | 37 h 17 min |
| A Storm of Swords | 973 | 82 | 414,604 | 47 h 37 min |
| A Feast for Crows | 753 | 46 | 295,032 | 31 h 10 min |
| A Dance with Dragons | 1,056 | 73 | 414,788 | 48 h 56 min |
| Total | 4,224 | 344 | 1,736,054 | 198 h 53 min or 8 days 6 h |
There are more than 1.7 million words in the 5 A Song of Ice and Fire novels that have been published so far.
Characters, narrative device and perspective
The books are written in 3rd person limited. This allows Martin to present each chapter from the perspective of different characters. By counting how many chapters take place from each character’s perspective we can see who the most prominent and, perhaps, important characters are throughout the series.
How many chapters are there from each character’s perspective in GOT?
- The first book takes place from the perspective of 9 different characters
- By the time of the 5th book, events were unfolding from the perspective of 31 different characters
- A Feast of Crows and A Dance with Dragons take place concurrently but are divided by geography so some characters only appear in one or the other
- Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, Arya Stark and Daenerys Targaryen are the only characters to have more than 30 chapters from their perspective
| Character | No. of Chapters | Percentage |
| Tyrion Lannister | 47 | 13.7% |
| Jon Snow | 42 | 12.2% |
| Arya Stark | 33 | 9.6% |
| Daenerys Targaryen | 31 | 9.0% |
| Catelyn Stark | 25 | 7.3% |
| Sansa Stark | 24 | 7.0% |
| Bran Stark | 21 | 6.1% |
| Jaime Lannister | 17 | 4.9% |
| Eddard Stark | 15 | 4.4% |
| Theon Greyjoy | 13 | 3.8% |
| Davos Seaworth | 13 | 3.8% |
| Cersei Lannister | 12 | 3.5% |
| Samwell Tarly | 10 | 2.9% |
| Brienne of Tarth | 8 | 2.3% |
| Prologue/Epilogue | 7 | 2.0% |
| Victarion Greyjoy | 4 | 1.2% |
| Asha Greyjoy | 4 | 1.2% |
| Quentyn Martell | 4 | 1.2% |
| Barristan Selmy | 4 | 1.2% |
| Aeron Greyjoy | 2 | 0.6% |
| Arianne Martell | 2 | 0.6% |
| Areo Hotah | 2 | 0.6% |
| Jon Connington | 2 | 0.6% |
| Arys Oakheart | 1 | 0.3% |
| Melisandre | 1 | 0.3% |