Lifetime sales? And as a notable book, probably one that was gifted often or bought to “decorate” shelves.
Maybe people used to read the book, but it feels like the people saying “Literally 1984” haven’t read the book, they just know that it’s how the world would be if [insert political party here] had their way in the government for too many years, which is a bad thing.
(And yes, of course the world being like 1984 would be bad, but I think that’s the limit of a lot of people’s understanding of the book, lol)