By the end of the week, sales had reached 10 million copies.
Even then, many of Wang Yi's fans were calling for them to print more.
There were still plenty of fans who hadn't managed to get a copy.
So, in the second week, Sports Illustrated printed another 2 million copies of that issue.
After a week of sales, more than 300,000 of those 2 million copies were still left.
Meanwhile, sales of the latest issue of Sports Illustrated had plummeted to just 600,000 copies.
That was nowhere near even a fraction of the number sold for Wang Yi's issue.
It showed just how great Wang Yi's influence was.
At the same time, the interview Sports Illustrated had done with Wang Yi—though calling it an interview was a stretch, since it was really a debate between two people, and calling it a debate was a stretch too, since Wang Yi had completely dominated the other side—had drawn an enormous audience.
The program first aired on the NBA's official television network, then on the three major networks TNT, ESPN, and ABC.
After that, it was uploaded and streamed online.
In just one week, the program had been viewed more than 50 million times in the United States alone.
What did that mean?
It meant that, on average, nearly one in every eight Americans had watched it.
And across the world, the program had already racked up 1.3 billion views in a single week.
In China alone, it had been viewed more than 500 million times in one week.
Wang Yi had single-handedly made the program a global sensation in an instant.
At Sports Illustrated's headquarters in Los Angeles, United States,
the magazine's editor-in-chief, its managing editor, and the producer of the program were gathered together, looking over the program's figures.
As