After seeing the wild success that Game of Thrones earned throughout its eight-season run, TV lovers have been expecting a similar response for the franchise’s new prequel series, House of the Dragon, which premiered on Sunday (August 21).
As Entertainment Weekly reports, the first episode broke a major record at HBO, making the new arrival the biggest series premiere in the platform’s history with an audience of 9.986 million viewers across linear and HBO Max platforms in the U.S.
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When GoT shared its first episode back in 2011, it earned a viewership of 2.22 million, so it’s evident that the adaptation’s fanbase has grown considerably over the years. Outside of America, House of the Dragon also had “the largest series launch on HBO Max across the U.S., Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.”
Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer at HBO and HBO Max shared his excitement in a statement, writing, “It was wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return with us to Westeros last night. 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.”
Though the initial episode of the new show was wildly successful, the numbers don’t compare to what the series finale of GoT achieved in 2019, bringing in 19.3M viewers (including streaming numbers).
At this time House of the Dragon hasn’t been greenlit for a second season, but if the remainder of the episodes are as successful as the first, it certainly won’t take long until things are confirmed.
Did you tune into Sunday night’s premiere? Sound off in the comments below, and read our overview of what audiences can expect from the new HBO show here.
[Via]