Nielsen Streaming Top 10: ‘House of the Dragon’ Crosses 1 Billion Minutes Viewed in Finale Week

HBO’s “House of the Dragon” closed its debut season on high note. During the October 17-23 viewing window, the series scored 1.01 billion minutes viewed on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 chart following the release of the season finale which aired on Oct. 23.

Because “House of the Dragon” airs on Sundays, only the finale’s first few hours of availability were included in this week’s figures. The series is likely to remain on the chart for another week as Nielsen continues to account for next-day streams.

Its main competition, Amazon Prime Video’s “The Rings of Power,” seems to be lacking in staying power. One week after Nielsen measured debut of its eighth and final episode, the “Lord of the Rings” prequel series has dropped off of the overall chart, instead taking fifth place when compared to streaming originals alone. This indicates that Nielsen’s measurements of the series throughout its run were generally representative of its core audience. In other words, the amount of people who waited until all episodes were available to begin binging “The Rings of Power” was not a large fraction.

Because the shows have different airing schedules and are in different formats, these comparisons aren’t exactly apples to apples. “House of the Dragon” had the benefit of a new episode bumping its viewership during this period, but is disadvantaged compared to “The Rings of Power” because an estimated one-third of its audience tuned in on HBO’s cable channel rather than streaming on HBO Max — making its performance this week especially impressive. Whether or not “House of the Dragon” remains on the chart past the release of its finale will be a more definitive marker of its cultural impact compared to “The Rings of Power.

Nielsen released additional data on both shows last week, giving some further insight into the audience contributing to the viewership on the two dramas. According to their analysis, at least 35% of “HOTD” viewers were aged 18-34 while 42% of “LOTR:TROP” audience were aged over 50. Also, 40% of “HOTD” viewers also watched “LOTR:TROP” and 35% of “LOTR:TROP” viewers also watched “HOTD.”

More to come…

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