To say that The Witcher TV show on Netflix has been a staggering success might be an understatement. Netflix has already confirmed that The Witcher was the platform's second-most popular original TV show of 2019. That's despite the fact that The Witcher was available for just 10 days before the list was released. And as the saying goes, high waters raise all boats. There's now ample evidence that The Witcher Netflix show is leading to a huge amount of excitement for the original books, as well.
There are eight individual books in The Witcher's written franchise, with five making up the core The Witcher saga. The remaining three involve either short or standalone stories, all of which are written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Every single one of these books, whether it be in paperback or hardcover, is sold out on Amazon at standard retail pricing. Also sold out are all The Witcher book sets. What remains are third-party sales that have jacked up the prices immensely.
Amazon is currently promising that many of the books will return to stock within two weeks. Worst case, some books will be back in stock in the next 1-2 months. Some products, like certain hardcovers or sets, have no confirmed return date. Book readers are rushing to catch up on The Witcher's story, both for context for the Netflix series' first season and to know what's coming in Season 2.
The lack of stock on Amazon draws two immediate questions. The first being whether Amazon ever expected The Witcher book series to have such a sudden surge of popularity in tandem with the Netflix show's launch. The second is is The Witcher's book publisher saw the surge coming, either. The lack of availability for full sets of The Witcher, of hardcover versions of every book, makes it seem like the publisher was taken unaware. A Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings definitely show how beneficial it is to be prepared for the launch of new multimedia like a TV show.
Being surprised by how successful The Witcher Netflix series has been is entirely understandable, of course. After all, just look at The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's success following the show's launch. The Witcher 3 is being played by more players right now on Steam than at launch. It's an unprecedented level of success, especially given The Witcher 3 was a huge success at launch, too. That The Witcher books may be seeing a similar level of success only seems right.
The Witcher TV show is currently available to watch exclusively on Netflix.