Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) in a successful manner, impressively; usu. as go gangbusters, to be very successful.

1938		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 14 May 21/5: On the evel [sic] ... coming on like gangbusters ... bust your conks ... The Acme Beer company’s outdoor signs is a gross insult to 20,000,000 people.
1939		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 1 July 11/1: You came thru like gangbusters last week and sang my praises for once.
1941		C. Brackett & B. Wilder Ball of Fire [film script] Here we go, like buster’s gang.
1960		Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI) 1 Feb. 28: Chubby slid down. coming on like gangbusters.
1968		Tipton Dly Trib. (Tipton, IN) 19 June 8/6: ‘From hereon we’re going to go like gangbusters’.
1970		Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, PA) 26 Jan. 3/2: The adjacent gymnasium is also being utilized and Brodt says it’s ‘going gangbusters’ [...] the gym is filled almost each night.
1982		Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ) 25 Nov. G2/2: ‘Video is just going gang-busters,’ says Harry Wells III.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 306: Obviously things were going gangbusters between Nina and the light-truck salesman.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 288: The first set [...] went over like gangbusters.
2000		Guardian Media 7 Feb. 6: I have too many other things going on. I have four newspapers to run and two dot com companies going gangbusters.
2004		A. Kleinzahler Cutty One Rock (2005) 172: The acid is coming on gangbusters at this point.
2005		Guardian G2 10 May 7: Brett’s career selling computers [...] is going ‘gangbusters’.
2017		Detroit Free Press 7 Jan. A11/3: Amazon was still going gangbusters until the 19th [Dec.].