The tabloid: Sales double as last NoW flies off the shelves

A total of 4.5 million copies were believed to have been printed and, by the end of Sunday, had sold out.

Despite the public’s anger about phone hacking and police payments, the last copy was expected to be a big seller. The title previously sold about 2.6m copies a week, already the best-selling English language newspaper in the world.

It did not reach previous heights from its 1960s heyday – when Rupert Murdoch first took it over – when more than 8 million copies a week were regularly snapped up.

However, it was the highest- selling News of the World since at least 1998. Copies of the newspaper arrived in shops across the country on Sunday morning with the headline “Thank you and goodbye”.

The public had been given a sneak preview of what to expect the previous evening when editor Colin Myler led staff to the front door of its Wapping headquarters with copies of the front page.

In February 1998, the News of the World sold 4,543,457 copies, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

However, Sunday’s sale could well have surpassed even that.

There were reports of people struggling to buy copies from their local shops.

There were also unconfirmed reports of copies trading hands for as much as £10. In an effort to earn some good publicity, News International promised all proceeds would go to good causes.

Of the £1 cover price, 26p goes to the retailer and wholesaler, leaving 74p per copy. That means charities such as Barnardo’s, the Forces Children’s Trust and military projects at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity should receive about £3.3 million.

Charity advertisers will also be delighted by how widely read the newspaper was as the News of the World, which had been ditched by many advertisers, decided to give over space to them instead, free of charge.

The News of the World’s main rivals – Mail on Sunday, Sunday Mirror and Sunday Express, who are expected to fight over its former readers this coming Sunday – also increased distribution to take advantage of what was expected to be a huge sales day for Sunday titles.

Gareth Rose