Approximately 20,000 copies of The Great Gatsby were sold in its first year of publication.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons on April 10, 1925. Although critics generally recognized Fitzgerald’s skill, the book was a commercial disappointment compared with his earlier novels, This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned.
Sales were slow enough that reports from 1925 describe fewer than 20,000 copies sold by October. The initial printing was around 20,870 copies, and a second printing of 3,000 copies was not quickly absorbed. That makes 20,000 a useful rounded figure rather than a claim of perfectly exact accounting.
The book’s reputation changed dramatically after Fitzgerald’s death. During World War II, Armed Services Editions introduced Gatsby to large numbers of American servicemen, helping create a new readership. It later became a standard school text and one of the best-known American novels. Modern sales therefore dwarf its modest first-year performance.