HBO scores highest premiere viewership ever for House of the Dragon

[C.T. Phipps]

https://gizmodo.com/game-of-thrones-house-of-the-dragon-hbo-record-debut-1849443394

Does it feel like there are dragons everywhere you look today? That’s because probably most everyone you know tuned in to House of the Dragon last night, which brought in “the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO,” according to a press release from the network.

The total number of viewers? A tidy 9.986 million “across linear and HBO Max platforms in the U.S. Sunday night,” so when you factor in the streamer’s international markets and the fact that people will also be watching today and throughout the week, that is... well, it’s a crap-ton of eyeballs eager to see what’s going on in the Westeros-set prequel.

HBO Max has gotten some bad ink lately for curtailing its catalog, not to mention scrapping some high-profile in-progress projects, but given the numbers you can expect nothing but full support from the company for House of the Dragon. Even Game of Thrones, which ended its run in 2019, “just wrapped its strongest week on HBO Max to date, capping off a seven-week stretch of week-over-week growth in engagement leading up to the premiere of House of the Dragon,” according to the release. That’s strong evidence that even people who watched (or re-watched, gods help them) Thrones season eight still had enough fan spirit to check out the new series.

Will this revived Game of Thrones fever be able to sustain itself across the debut season of House of the Dragon? We had some mixed feelings about the premiere, but we’ll still be tuning in to see what those stinky (apparently) dragons and their slippery humans get up to next. New episodes arrive Sunday nights on HBO and HBO Max through October 23.

[TormundsWoman]

To date it was a record breaker for UK too apparently:

https://variety.com/2022/tv/global/house-of-the-dragon-uk-premiere-ratings-1235348076/

I’ve read to WotW that it was generally across all European countries where it premiered. Don’t have the numbers or anything like that, but it sounds like it was a big success.

[C.T. Phipps]

It bodes well for the renewal of the series as well as the continuation of the Game of Thrones franchise as a whole.

A lot of people predicted it was dead as a cultural juggernaut after Season 8.

[Farerb]

I think they're waiting to see how the next few episodes will do before they announce the renewal.

I predict that The Rings of Power will pass those numbers though.

[C.T. Phipps]

35 minutes ago, farerb said:

I think they're waiting to see how the next few episodes will do before they announce the renewal.

I predict that The Rings of Power will pass those numbers though.

It doesn't really matter whether Rings of Power is bigger or not since both can succeed, but I actually have the feeling Amazon has way-way overspent on the series. I intend to watch it but I also feel like they are focusing on a franchise that has already used its best material.

[C.T. Phipps]

Well, the viewership has climbed to 20 million since Sunday and they've renewed it for a second season.

[slant]

Suspect that the viewership numbers are going to climb much higher, almost everyone I watched Thrones with is waiting for a few episodes to drop before binging. 

[BlackLightning]

On 8/25/2022 at 8:45 PM, C.T. Phipps said:

A lot of people predicted it was dead as a cultural juggernaut after Season 8.

Never underestimate the power of marketing.

 

Also, it turns out that the way that D&D treated Daenerys has not only backfired but that no one else really buys into it. I don't think this show would have been as successful as it was if they had not completely character assassinated Dany out of nowhere for no damn reason in the last two episodes.

Notice how no one was interested in the Long Night prequel Bloodmoon.

Now, if this show and this showrunner fucks it up, then Game of Thrones as a franchise is done. I feel like a lot more hinges on the success of Snow as well.

[Winterfell is Burning]

On 9/2/2022 at 10:41 AM, BlackLightning said:

Never underestimate the power of marketing.

 

Also, it turns out that the way that D&D treated Daenerys has not only backfired but that no one else really buys into it. I don't think this show would have been as successful as it was if they had not completely character assassinated Dany out of nowhere for no damn reason in the last two episodes.

Notice how no one was interested in the Long Night prequel Bloodmoon.

Now, if this show and this showrunner fucks it up, then Game of Thrones as a franchise is done. I feel like a lot more hinges on the success of Snow as well.

Also, this doesn't feature any character of GoT, nor D&D.

I'm more curious to how Snow will play out.

[C.T. Phipps]

1 hour ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

Also, this doesn't feature any character of GoT, nor D&D.

I'm more curious to how Snow will play out.

I hope it's not a miniseries but an ongoing and incorporates as much of the cut Martin material as possible.

[C.T. Phipps]

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a40911484/house-of-the-dragon-episode-3-recap/

Like it or not, House of the Dragon Episode Three begins with a time jump. Over two years have passed since the events of the second episode, apparently. The new Queen, Alicent Hightower, has finally given King Viserys a male heir, named Aegon. We're at the young prince's second birthday, where everyone is eager to celebrate. You know who else has something to celebrate? HBO. If a raven hasn't delivered the message to you yet, House of the Dragon doubled its massive viewership numbers last Sunday from roughly 10 million viewers—to over 25 million.

[Ran]

Via Variety, third episode lost 1 million viewers on cable on the night. Not too concerning: a combination of Labor Day weekend and ABC broadcasting the nailbiter LSU-FSU game at an overlapping time would both have had an impact. And starting this Sunday, Sunday Night Football will likely take a piece out of same-day viewership of HotD.

[butterweedstrover]

Well, the show is joyless and self-serious with most of the conversations relying heavily on mood with little actual spoken words. 
 

I think the general audience will tire of this.

[The Bard of Banefort]

In retrospect, it was a very odd decision to air this season on Sunday nights during football season. I’m guessing they wanted to get out of the gate before LOTR but couldn’t be ready in time for a summer release. I expect S2 will probably come out in spring or summer, like GOT did.

[Ran]

Sunday is always HBO's day. There used to be a time they would skip holidays, and I recall we endlessly speculated that they'd skip Memorial Day weekend for the first two seasons of GoT, but they never did bother until the 3rd season (there was a week skipped before the Red Wedding) and I think the fourth.

They're just not bothered by it, they know people will catch up on streaming and what not these days (or, back then, on a later repeat airing).

[The Bard of Banefort]

Now Deadline is saying it got 16 million views. It doesn’t specify that those views are US only though, so I’m guessing these are the global numbers.

https://deadline.com/2022/09/house-of-the-dragon-week-3-ratings-hbo-16-million-plus-viewers-1235110494/#comments

So “additional linear plays” refers to repeat airings then?

 

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

27 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

In retrospect, it was a very odd decision to air this season on Sunday nights during football season.

Didn't GoT always air on Sundays, though?

[The Bard of Banefort]

1 minute ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Didn't GoT always air on Sundays, though?

In the spring.

[C.T. Phipps]

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-ratings-episode-5-wedding-1235377997/

Each episode is averaging 29 million.

HBO is now probably dancing in the streets.

[The Bard of Banefort]

I’m guessing those are the global numbers. I wonder what the breakdown per country is? In the US at least, HOTD feels a lot less prominent than GOT did, but honestly, I think that’s for the better. It’s been more enjoyable this way. GOT got too big for it’s own good.