The Sunday night premiere of House of the Dragon, the highly anticipated Game of Thrones spin-off, was the most-watched episode of the HBO series since “Game of Thrones.”
According to HBO, 10 million viewers watched the episode across HBO’s platforms, including its cable network and streaming service HBO Max. Cable-only viewership totals provided by Nielsen won’t be released until Tuesday morning.
The viewership was the series’ biggest start in HBO’s history, the network said. A strong debut from “House of the Dragons” is a source of comfort for HBO execs, and may be proof that audiences want more stories from Westeros. HBO has at least five other “Throne” spinoff ideas in development.
HBO’s Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys said in a statement, “We are thrilled with the positive response from our viewers.”
“Game of Thrones” last aired in May 2019, and although the series broke viewership records, last season was also met with backlash from critics and fans. Some people associated with the show, including author George R.R. Martin, who created the “Thrones” universe, fear that the backlash will prevent viewers from giving “House of the Dragon” a chance. I was. The prequel takes place approximately 200 years before the events of the original series.
Benefitting from a lavish marketing campaign, ‘House of the Dragon’ has nine more episodes this season. HBO executives will be watching closely to see if some viewers try out the series and move on to another show. Amazon will premiere his own flashy fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings: Ring of Power, in early September.
“I think the show will do really well,” Bloys said in an interview last month. “But it has to do its own thing to bring in viewers and maintain ratings.”
“House of the Dragon”‘s numbers were significantly higher than the “Euphoria” finale, which HBO said was the most-watched show since “Game of Thrones.” According to HBO, the finale of “Euphoria” earned him 6.6 million viewers in February, while the second season averaged him over 16 million viewers.
‘House of the Dragon’ totals also overwhelmed the third season finale of HBO’s ‘Succession’, which led the entire series in Emmy nominations this year. Its episodes, which aired in December, averaged 1.7 million viewers, a record for “inheritance,” the network said.