House of the Dragon debuts to almost 10 million viewers

2022-08-23

House of the Dragon posts HBO’s highest-rated series premiere EVER with nearly 10 million viewers tuning in for Game of Thrones prequel

Debut of the series garnered 9.99 million viewers
Show is a Game of Thrones prequel from George R.R. Martin
It is set 200 years ahead of Game of Thrones, detailing the story of the House Targaryen
HBO Max app crashed during debut of series on Sunday

House of the Dragon made history in its debut Sunday evening on HBO and HBO Max, as the Game of Thrones prequel garnered 9.99 million viewers – the largest ever in the network’s history – Warner Bros. Discovery said Monday.

The ratings for the debut marked the biggest numbers ranging back before the streaming era, and shows that later debuted on the since-shuttered HBO Now and HBO Go, according to Variety. The numbers are based off of linear airings and HBO Max streams Sunday evening.

The series, which is a prequel to the smash hit Game of Thrones, more than doubled the 2011 debut of its predecessor, which had 4.2 million viewers at the time. The show garnered a record 17.9 million for the debut of its final season in 2019.

The latest: House of the Dragon garnered 9.99 million viewers – the largest ever in the network’s history – Warner Bros. Discovery said Monday. The show features Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen

The HBO hit Euphoria – which is the network’s second-most watched show in history behind Game of Thrones – garnered 2.4 million viewers for its season two debut this past January.

The prequel’s source material is the 2018 novel Fire & Blood from series co-creator George R.R. Martin, and set 200 years ahead of Game of Thrones, detailing the story of the House Targaryen.

Martin created the show with Ryan Condal, a co-showrunner alongside director Miguel Sapochnik. The show stars Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno and Rhys Ifans.

HBO/HBO Max’s chief content officer Casey Bloys said ‘it was wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return with us to Westeros last night,’ Variety reported.

The series, which features Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon/The Sea Snake, had ratings that marked the biggest numbers ranging back before the streaming era, and shows that later debuted on the since-shuttered HBO Now and HBO Go

Emma D’Arcy plays the role of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen on the show, which debuted to huge numbers

Bloys added: ‘House of the Dragon features an incredibly talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into the production, and we’re ecstatic with viewers’ positive response.

‘We look forward to sharing with audiences what else George, Ryan and Miguel have in store for them this season.’

The overall numbers from the network came in the wake of news that House of the Dragon debuted to the best same-day viewership of the year for premium cable networks or streaming services in the U.S. with 2.6 million households tuning in Sunday.

The stats were based on the viewers who watched the debut episode on HBO, and its streaming service HBO Max in its initial six hours of release, TV analytics company Samba TV reported, according to the New York Post.

The series garnered more than double the same-day viewership of the season four debut of Netflix’s Stranger Things earlier this year, which garnered 1.2 million households.

The prequel’s source material is the 2018 novel Fire & Blood from series co-creator George R.R. Martin, and set 200 years ahead of Game of Thrones, detailing the story of the House Targaryen

Samba TV CEO and co-founder Ashwin Navin told the outlet that ‘the next challenge, and the real opportunity for HBO in the coming weeks, is to expand viewership beyond the passionate built-in fan base.’

Stats from Samba indicated that households bringing in at least $125,000 were 44 percent more likely to watch House of the Dragon.

It was not immediately clear how the numbers were impacted by the HBO Max app crashing, according to the outlet, as DownDetector, a website that tracks outages, said that there were in the range of 3,000 blackouts from 8:40 p.m. to 9:25 p.m. EST Sunday.

HBO told the outlet that a ‘small portion of users’ were impacted by the technical issue, and an HBO spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that the issue was more likely to impact viewers who watched the show via Amazon technology such as the Fire TV stick.

HBO said in a statement: ‘House of the Dragon is being successfully viewed by millions of HBO Max subscribers this evening. We’re aware of a small portion of users attempting to connect via Fire TV devices that are having issues and are in the process of resolving for those impacted users.’

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