Mashable is reporting that the season two premiere of Game of Thrones was hugely popular on social media sites, especially the TV check-in website GetGlue.
About 50,000 people checked-in to GetGlue on Sunday to let friends know they were watching the show. GetGlue, which rewards its users with points that can be redeemed for virtual and physical stickers and discounts from entertainment companies, experienced so much traffic during that time that its servers were briefly down.
“We also had over 90,000 check-ins for the week leading up to the premiere,” a GetGlue spokesperson told Mashable, noting that the first episode of Game of Thrones last year brought in just 9,000 check-ins on.
To put the 50,000 check-ins into context, the highly-anticipated return of Mad Men last week brought in 22,000 check-ins. Meanwhile, the season 2 premiere of The Walking Dead had 43,000 and the 2011 season premiere of True Blood had 38,000 check ins.
“We knew it would be a big night, but we didn’t know how big,” the spokesperson added.
The article also includes some nice charts about the numbers racked up by Thrones on social media last night.
Winter Is Coming: Wow. The buzz is off the charts, folks. I really can’t wait to see the premiere ratings now! They should be released tomorrow…
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125 Comments
Fantastic numbers. Ratings may be over 5 million.
Carey TranQuote Reply
wonderful.i predicted 6.7 million
the waifQuote Reply
Holy shit! :D
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
Well deserved :).
Colin HicksQuote Reply
Seems really good, but then theres all the hardcore fans that are that are so very vocal about it. Considering the views on youtube, you’d think GOT season 1 was a lot more popular than,, say Boardwalk empire – which it wasn’t – but GOT has all these obsessed nerdy fans, that do this. (Yes, I’m one of them)
So I’m only cautiously optimistic and still don’t expect the premiere to break that 4 million barrier. 3.8 was my fairly optimistic guess, and I’m sticking to it.
But on the other hand, I can’t really explain away all those WiC hits… 10 times as many?? Hmm…
Edit: Oh, not WiC hits. Well, no wonder at all then. I’m not convinced. Ofcourse they’ll have a lot more hits, since “normal” people generally aren’t too interested in shows that haven’t even started airing.
sjweningsQuote Reply
Like I said in another post, the buzz got much bigger since the end of season 1, so i think the ratings are gonna be big.
Plain_AQuote Reply
Nice! How’s the site traffic been?
Waiting patiently for Fab and Rabbit to compile the tweets…(highlight of the week)
dizzy_34Quote Reply
sjwenings,
Game of Thrones season 1 was higher rated than Boardwalk Empire season 2.
Tyrion PimpslapQuote Reply
Nice. Anyone know if the episode trending on twitter last night?
STsaugaQuote Reply
Yesterday we matched the S1 high we established the Monday after “Baelor.” And considering Monday’s were always the higher traffic days when the eps aired last season, I suspect we will break our traffic record today.
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
I gotta say I love Boardwalk Empire, but what I saw last night transcended BE in every aspect. The very fact that a series can capture humanity’s best and worst over the span of 50 minutes places it right under the Wire as my favorite series.
Joshua TaylorQuote Reply
dizzy_34,
Do not worry.
We were busy last night/early morning (for me)
The RabbitQuote Reply
sweet! more charts! you know where i’m going next… *click*
JessQuote Reply
Wasn’t talking about season 2.
Anyway: The BE regular trailer with the most views, still has LESS than one Arya/artisans or a Fight stunts feature. GOT has this (rather big) fanatic cult following that can give you a false impression of popularity.
sjweningsQuote Reply
Here are the Google trends up until Saturday:
http://www.google.com/trends/?q=game+of+thrones,+walking+dead,+true+blood&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0
I have a feeling we’ll be up on Walking Dead’s levels this season.
Johan SporreQuote Reply
The Rabbit,
:)
dizzy_34Quote Reply
sjwenings,
False in what way? Don’t compare apples and oranges. Youtube, Twitter, Google, IMDb etc are numbers the whole world contribute to (and as mentioned before, GoT is HBO’s biggest export ever) whereas first-run ratings in the US are impossible to influence for a large portion of GoT’s fanbase. Does that make GoT less popular than Boardwalk Empire?
Johan SporreQuote Reply
my prediction for the ratings…14 million. just you wait :)
SolarQuote Reply
False because nerdfans are that much more likely to watch clips on youtube, tweet about it, google it and so forth.
I don’t see how the other stuff you say is relevant here. And i never said GOT is less popular than BE.
sjweningsQuote Reply
Awesome news. The show deserves all the accolades and buzz it gets.
John WQuote Reply
Game of Thrones might have did great on getglue but look at this http://mashable.com/2012/03/26/mad-men-social-premiere/
Mad Mens season premiere had more social media commenters 67,000 compared to Game of Thrones 45,000. Mad Men Premiered to 3.5m and a 1.2 demo. I think a lot of you are drastically overestimating the ratings. I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t top 4m or maybe even 3.5m. It is most likely nowhere near Walking Dead ratings or even True Blood ratings considering the fact that HBO is waiting until tomorrow to release the ratings when they already know them today but haven’t released them. If the ratings were massive they most likely would have released a press release bragging or at least let the media know about it.
JamesLQuote Reply
Hey guys, I posted by very own recap :) Check it out here:
http://www.footballfina.com/2012/04/02/the-north-remembers-episode-1-recap/
Hope you like it!
FootballfinaQuote Reply
JamesL,
Oh stop being such a negative nelly! :-) Ever hear of self fulfilling prophecy?
Joshua TaylorQuote Reply
I’m really excited about the ratings now. Is it possible that HBO may renew Game of Thrones for a further two seasons (at least) if the ratings are high enough?
Michael HarperQuote Reply
Joshua Taylor,
I just don’t want everyone to get their hopes up thinking that the show is going to a monster ratings grabber and think it is going getting epic Walking Dead type ratings like some people have commented and then for the ratings to come back barley over 3m or god forbid under 3m. As long as it has its very passionate worldwide fanbase it is not going to get cancelled so there is no need to worry about that. I really don’t think the ratings are going to be that impressive though considering HBO doesn’t want to release them today but I hope I’m wrong. One thing I did notice though is that there was a lot less post episode buzz and discussion on the internet by browsing different forums and recaps than there was compared to the moderately rated premiere of season 1 and especially compared to final episodes of season 1. I don’t know if that is a bad sign for ratings or just because not very much happened this premiere episode.
JamesLQuote Reply
sjwenings,
I see your point, but I’d argue that the major factor why buzz and ratings won’t necessarily correspond that well for GoT is its world-wide audience.
Johan SporreQuote Reply
http://winteriscoming.net/2011/06/season-one-ratings-overview/
Deeply appreciating HmR’s graphnerdiness, I went back to find this post. Many moons ago he predicted 4.5m. Let’s see if it holds true!
EleanorQuote Reply
Do tell, when will the ratings for ep 1 come through??
Maester RigneyQuote Reply
JamesL,
Fair enough :)
Joshua TaylorQuote Reply
SEASON 2 SPOILERS:
THEY FUCKING CUT SHIREEN????? WHAT??!?!?!??!?!?!?rGKDKKDGSKDGKDSGSDGDSGASDGASDGSADGDSGASDGSDGDSGSDGASGSA
StannisQuote Reply
Now I don’t know what to believe… Good ratings/mediocre ratings I’ll guess we’ll just have to wait what they actually are. Last year, I remember, we fussed about them a lot as well and it all turned out quite nicely so I suspect this year will also turn out okay.
(didn’t got a chance to join in the after premiere discussions, so I’ll just say here that I absolutely loved it, even Ross! )
LiesieQuote Reply
You Americans seem to underestimate the huge difference in the worldwide appeal between GoT and other shows to which it is often compared. While the audience in the U.S. can be more or less the same, the worldwide is not. Here in the Central Europe, GoT is way bigger than, say, True Blood, Walking Dead and so on (I am not even mentioning BE – that show seems to be popular only in the U.S.). And I am not talking about fantasy geeks here, just normal TV viewers. I dare to say that, unlike many other HBO shows, GoT really is the worldwide phenomenon with universal appeal across the cultures (even Sopranos are rather unknown outside the U.S.). Therefore, it probably really is HBO most prized property at the moment, quite possibly ever, regardless of the U.S ratings (and this whole rating bussines is way too overblown…)
Pko321Quote Reply
Is there a reason that a renewal hasn’t been announced yet? Doesn’t HBO usually do it right after the first episode?
nattieQuote Reply
Joshua Taylor:
You’re entitled to your opinion and I agree, GoT is an amazing series, especially coming from someone like me who bitch about adaptations from book to tv series/movies, but I got to ask, you’re already putting GoT up there with the whole 5 seasons of The Wire after just 11 episodes?
About ratings, I wouldn’t be too hang up about it, we know the series is great with or without high ratings similar to The Walking Dead or True Blood. Hell, I’m still trying to figure out how TWD gets such high ratings over Mad Men and Breaking Bad and I’m a fan of the comic.
DaveQuote Reply
While the volume of comments seems quite nice, should we be concerned about the sentiment percentages. Neutral (76%) seems to be the largest grouping. Could there be a large decline of comments with Episode #2 if people are just neutral about the show?
David the GreyQuote Reply
JamesL,
As far as I’ve seen in the past, there’s always a day gap from airing to HBO releasing the viewer ratings (it was the same case last year, every week). I don’t think it has anything to do with whether the premiere did well or poorly.
I do agree with you in that people are overhyping the possible ratings to the point where it’s almost inevitable they’ll be disappointed if the show doesn’t hit these mega-expectations (i.e. the 6.7 mill prediction above, the Walking Dead comparisons, etc). True Blood doesn’t even get these numbers – it averages somewhere in the 5 mill range – and that’s a show that’s far easier to get into at any point. Remember, HBO has a finite subscriber base in the 20some million. And Game of Thrones needs to be watched from the very beginning.
Internet buzz often doesn’t have a direct correlation with real-world numbers (look at the buzz for Grindhouse online prior to opening in theatres, ditto with Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim, etc). Many of these fans buzzing are people who don’t have HBO and won’t be counted in the HBO viewer ratings. The GoT fan base is also far more vocal as you mentioned. And you can take Internet numbers any way you want really to support whatever viewpoint you lean towards – for example, I could look at the FaceBook fanbase where Game of Thrones is FAR lower than these other shows – it has 2.2 million fans listed versus 7.8 million fans for Walking Dead and 9.8 million for True Blood – and then project Game of Thrones to have almost five times less viewers than True Blood (I don’t believe that to be the case of course, just giving an example where we could be projecting something completely different based on social media results).
All that said, I am expecting/hoping for a bump due to blu-ray/dvd sales, people catching up after the initial airings, and the people who started reading the book series for the first time this past year (seeing as a ton of books sold).
Considering True Blood’s bump from Season 1 to 2, I don’t think it’s out of the question for Game of Thrones to hit 4 million or higher. I would be over the moon if it hit 4 mill, anything above that would be gravy. But honestly, if it’s just a modest bump to somewhere in the low/mid 3s, that would still make me happy.
JCQuote Reply
David the Grey,
I’m going to take a guess that neutral doesn’t mean they said they were meh on the show, but rather refers to comments like “Watching GoT Season 2 right now!” where there is no specific positive or negative element to the comment.
JCQuote Reply
Pko321,
Great feedback, thanks.
Steven SwansonQuote Reply
Pko321,
I have to agree with you ,I didn’t even know about Walking Dead or BE.
True Blood is pretty huge here (Europe) ,but I think mainly beacause of “Vampire fever” .
However,I hope for the best for GoT,it’s definetly the most epic thing I’ve ever seen in my life .I hope till the end of the season the ratings are gonna be by 6 mil. :fingercrossed:
IsmarQuote Reply
JC,
I’m kind of shocked about the “facebook numbers”.
However how would you take the “talking about this” – thingy into account? Which in comparison Game of Thrones is way better. People actually talking about GoT in their news-feed is probably better instead of just hit the like button. :D
Anything over 3.5 mill, would be great :).
N E X TQuote Reply
HBO’s revenue is based on subscriptions, not advertising. Moreover, they offer many repeats of their original content plus online streaming plus massive DVD/Blue-Ray sales.
Ergo, HBO execs will likely pay more attention to the cumulative US totals over the first week and guesstimate tail-end and overseas revenue from there. GoT season 1 averaged 2-3 million viewers per episode on the first airing but more like 8-9 over the course of a whole week. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the marketing hype helps S02E01 shatter the 10 million mark by next Sunday. The real question is how much of this expected ratings bump the rest of season 2 can sustain. The teaser for the next episode looks very promising, at any rate.
Nagga’s KinQuote Reply
If the ratings are about 3m-4m, that’s about normal right now. The show is only in its second season, after all. If the 2nd season gets even more positive buzz by the end, then season 3′s numbers is where we should look for 5+m, not when the show is only in its 2nd season.
And the ratings for TWD and MM will be higher because AMC is not a pay-to-watch channel like HBO, hence more people have accessibility towards it, whereas with HBO you need a subscription. The ratings will be good enough to warrant a season 3 and 4.
LordEddardStarkQuote Reply
All that an no Sean Bean?
Seriously, though, I’m growing a little tired of all the critics citing the lack of Sean Bean in the cast is if it were somebody’s fault. Ned died at the end of the first book. Were D&D supposed to ignore this? I love Sean Bean, but Ned’s dead, baby. Ned’s dead. Move on. We’ve got Stannis and Mel and Davos and Margaery :-b and Ygritte and TYRION IS HAND! We’ve got 50,000. We’ve got cult.
Mike ChairQuote Reply
Pko321,
I have this mental block when it comes to posts that begin with phrases like “You Americans seem to” blah blah blah. Try not to generalize, and I’ll return the favor, alright? :)
Ours is the FuryQuote Reply
Honestly, I wouldn’t put any faith in Getglue “check-ins”. A user can check in to a show for a free sticker from that show, and as long as you click “check in” any time during or any time after the show airs, on the same day it aired, you unlock a sticker. Some people (a lot of people no doubt) just want stickers (imagine that) and don’t bother watching the show/movie/event that they check in for.
ViolentosQuote Reply
Well then that would apply to the mad men and all the other shows with ‘stickers’. The fact that more people online wanted a got sticker is a good sign
SuperdeluxeQuote Reply
Will not break 4 million for the 9pm showing, it’ll be close – but it won’t break it. Probably 5.5 million for the night.
And honestly, that’s fine. I’d rather see incremental increase in viewers than a huge explosion all at once. I think that’s more indicative a steady, strong, and growing viewer base.
CurbYourEnthusiasmQuote Reply
AMC is available in 100 million homes in the US. HBO, a premium network, has about 28 million subscribers. So if TWD has 7 million viewers for the first run and GOT has 4-4.5 million, I’d say GOT had the more impressive ratings.
Also, the Nielsan ratings numbers aren’t available for all HBO Sunday programs until the following Tuesday. And HBO usually renews seasons the day of or the day after the ratings are released. The show will never be cancelled. The worldwide audience is too large and the DVD/BR sales to great.
Tyrion PimpslapQuote Reply
Here is nice article about our dear HBO.
http://www.economist.com/node/21526314
the waifQuote Reply
CurbYourEnthusiasm,
HBO tries to ignore the “9pm only” ratings format whenever possible saying that people watch the encores or replays… and I agree frankly.
I still say anything 4.1 million or above will be BIG! Anyhing over 5 would be unbelievably good.
darquemodeQuote Reply
Ours is the fury:
It was not meant to insult american wievers and I am by no means being antiamerican here. People do that all around the world-I mean, judging matters based on what they can see most readily and missing the big picture. However, instead of criticizing my style of delivery, which may not have been the best, why not to discuss the point I made? (My generalizations might have been insulting, but it is just as infuriating when someone just criticizes your style and completely refrains from discussing the content) The reason I wrote my post is that the worldwide audience is rarely mentioned here, even though it matters much more than numbers in any single country, and I thought it would be nice to have some feedback from other countries. People here are (mostly) discussing trees and missing the wood …they get all heated up over the ratings in one (albeit big) country, forgeting that when put to context, it is still a rather small part of the whole picture.The fact that GoT is HBO best selling property internationally is quite telling..
Pko321Quote Reply
Honestly as long as the numbers are over 3.5 million i’ll be happy, this is a premium channel after all, as has been said, trying to beat out shows that are on regular cable is asking a little much.
No doubt as the season progresses it will bring in more viewers as the word spreads. I can certainly see GoT above 4 mil by episode 10 if this season is as good as the first (is that even a real question?) We’re good methinks.
gswelcomeQuote Reply
Pko321,
My point was, when you insult people based on their country of origin, I’m not very interested in the other things you have to say, unfortunately. That’s how that works.
That said, the worldwide view is of course a huge point in considering GoT’s visibility and financial success. The popularity of the show overseas, HBO’s ability to sell the show to so many countries, and recoup investment so fast is why they’re willing to keep renewing.
Ours is the FuryQuote Reply
I’m in the US and while I don’t fall in with the people you’re describing I can’t say I necessarily disagree with your generalization. Every day I look at a ratings website and I just can’t understand why certain shows get so many viewers. Actually, I think I understand exactly why but this isn’t the place to write it out. :/
I enjoyed True Blood well enough for most of the first two seasons. While nowhere near GoT level of enjoyment I did make sure to watch it weekly. Since then I’ve gotten all meh on it and I end up weeks behind and don’t rush to watch. I don’t know what sort of people really love Walking Dead, but no matter how much I try to watch it’s just not my thing. I guess I’ve just never thought zombies were that cool… and watching a “farming drama” with a threat of possible zombies hasn’t been all that fun. BE bores the hell out of me, sorry.
ClobQuote Reply
What’s really at stake here with the premiere ratings is not cancellation, but the show’s budget. You can bet that D&D would not have gotten a bigger budget for Season 2 if the ratings hadn’t gone up for Season 1. If season 2 is big outta the gate, it’s gonna give D&D more bargaining power to ask HBO to give em more $$$ as they begin preproduction on Season 3. Between George’s massive book sales, season 1′s DVD sales, critical acclaim, and me pimpin it to everyone I know, I think we can be hopeful that we’ll see a significant uptick.
Brad VillaneQuote Reply
I’m worried there aren’t more comments on Alan Sepinwall’s blog. There are around 300 comments on Mad Men, 60-something on The Killing, but only 114 on the Game of Thrones episode 1 recap/review. Does this mean people aren’t being vocal about seeing it? It seems like most of the comments are from readers.
DreamlifeQuote Reply
There are loads of Game of Thrones/ASOIAF sites, other places for discussion a Hitfix thread. Not so much with Mad Men, based on my observation.
Ours is the FuryQuote Reply
sci-fi/fantasy nerds no doubt are more obsessed with their shows than the more “mainstream” ones, not surprising we get a lot of fansites and such other than things like Mad Men :)
gswelcomeQuote Reply
Did anyone notice Rob Stark’s line to his mother: “Send Renly my regards”. Chilling words if your a fan of the books
LanisterPaysHisDebtsQuote Reply
To add my voice to others above: there is no way GoT gets ratings like The Walking Dead. Nor does it need to. HBO’s math is entirely different. 4 million would be absolutely terrific in my opinion (& is what I predicted), but anything over last year’s finale ratings is just fine.
Otherwise, I just think it’s funny that folks are concerned GoT may not have generated quite as much commentary as Mad Men. Mad Men! Like, the 4-time Emmy winner whose fans are completely obsessed with it.
If Mad Men’s the standard of success we’re comparing the show to now – that’s pretty damn good!
Maxwell JamesQuote Reply
Anyone with HBO go notice in the interactive bar they have Sir Meryn, and describe him as the man that killed Syrio Forel. Does this end the debate?
ColdhandsQuote Reply
@ Winter Is Coming
you guys should add the episode recaps/reviews done by Tim Surette of tv.com,he writes some of the most funny reviews –
http://www.tv.com/news/game-of-thrones-a-clash-of-kings-28266/
ElricQuote Reply
Brad Villane,
Yes. Thank you.
And keep up the good work, pimp daddy!
Assunta FioriniQuote Reply
N E X T,
The measurement of people talking about something is based on the previous 7 days. So really, it’s actually not that amazing that Game of Thrones has double the amount of people talking about it versus True Blood in the past few days considering this was the week leading up to the GoT premiere whereas True Blood is not on for a few months yet.
Even if True Blood was airing its premiere this weekend and GoT had more people talking about it – it wouldn’t necessarily mean we have more viewers, just that our viewers are more vocal (which I think we know is true considering how passionate the book fan base is).
But all of this was just to prove that using social media to guesstimate ratings with any kind of accuracy is nearly impossible. Game of Thrones may blast past our expectations or it may come in below – but either way, I don’t see its ratings as a direct correlation with the social media buzz, other than a very vague idea that people are talking about it which would have hopefully led more people to decide to try the show.
Brad Villane,
Exactly – this is why I’m crossing my fingers for a nice boost in viewers. I really really want them to have the budget to do Storm of Swords justice.
JCQuote Reply
Thank you for the truth.
NickQuote Reply
I don’t know if this is the kind of thing you actually want to mention on the site, but episode 2 has been leaked online due to HBO GO airing it a week early in certain European countries as a promotional drive for the service.
TropxeQuote Reply
No ratings update yet?
ArthurQuote Reply
When I called Time Warner yesterday to add HBO, the lady I talked to said all they had been doing all day was adding HBO to people’s packages…continuously…all day. I imagine this phenomenon will be represented by the ratings…
Long Ball LarryQuote Reply
HBO always releases its ratings on Tuesdays because it wants to count the 11 PM rebroadcast, even though Nielsen does not. Basic cable and broadcast always release their overnights on Mondays. TB’s ratings jump for S2 had nothing to do with anything other than the introduction of the character of Eric and the star quality of Alex Skarsgard; the week-by-week ratings for the first season of TB tend to support that conclusion. Without a potential break-out star for the ladies like Jason Momoa returning for S2, I’m not forecasting a monstrous jump for S2. If TB lost Skarsgard, you’d see the TB ratings sink to GOT’s level, rather than GOT rising to TB levels.
DH87Quote Reply
Dreamlife,
I commented how I noticed this too, not just on Hitflix but on all the different forums and recaps all over the internet. The IMDB forum was not nearly as busy post episode as it was last year, Television Without Pity had a very active Game of Thrones forum last year but this year not nearly as much. I remember each discussion thread after an episode would get at least 80,000+ views by the next day, this year it is half that. I’m not sure if it is bad news for ratings or if it is just because nothing really happened in the episode except reintroducing all the characters from last season and introducing the new ones.
JamesLQuote Reply
JC,
I like that reasoning, JC! In that case, 76% is not bad at all!
David the GreyQuote Reply
Quit worrying about number of comments on one of the many websites reviewing the show. ‘Mad Men’ had 2.9 million viewers this week. GOT should easily top that. And that is with HBO being in 70 million fewer households in the US. I still say 4.2 million viewers for the original airing.
Tyrion PimpslapQuote Reply
Offtopic but, the second episode it’s so awesome that I can’t even describe it . We are gonna have the first look of Jaqen ,Balon,Yara,Ghost and that pirate that I forgot his name . Though it is kinda moving fast like the first episode and a lot of characters from the previous one aren’t even appearing .
Claudiu GherganuQuote Reply
I used to read all comments but of late they’re really long.. anyway i hope ratigns are huge, hopefully over 4m! I mean it was awesome, a little complicated for the non reader but still EPIC
Damián ErroQuote Reply
I was listening to one of the podcasts I follow and they talked about the premiere and the show in general. They had some interesting stuff to say about Joffrey. Was pretty funny. Thought people might want to hear from more non-book readers.
http://my.spill.com/profiles/blogs/a-couple-of-cold-ones-april-2nd-2012
The talk starts at 76:35
AndersonQuote Reply
Lets all just hope we wake up tomorrow and check WiC and there is a new thread with some awesome news of great ratings and HBO green lighting future seasons.
I really cant imagine them canceling this show but like so many others have said, with some great ratings D&D will be in a good position to ask for more funding to even make the next season better. Witch could mean more cast members (Meera!). More CGI (More Direwolve and Dragon scenes). And more epic fight/battle scenes…
Goodnight.
ArthurQuote Reply
If I had to bet I’d say 3.3 or 3.4. Ever the pessimist, I’m not sure the show’s US appeal is as good as some assume, at least for initial ratings. I’d imagine overall S2 will get around 10m overall views a week, topping the first season.
More Rice CooksQuote Reply
The second episode, is wow, so, so good.
Thank you to The Netherlands HBOGO for putting it up, and whoever got it on the net, to let folks like me who have no patience to get a chance to view it 6 days early.
This is my first post on here, but I have been reading here on and off since I first heard about the show sometime in 2010.
I am not yet a book reader of the series, but because of this site and the wiki one, I have spoiled myself to know most of the story. I don’t know every single detail that is on each of the posts, but thanks to all of you I am learning more each spoilery post I highlight to read.
JasonQuote Reply
Where did you find that figure for Mad Men? Every media outlet is reporting 3.5 million viewers, a series high, for its two hour season premiere.
DH87Quote Reply
I think HBO not only will renew GOT but also greenlight two seasons to be filmed back-to-back, in an unprecedented move dictated by the child actors’ aging, proving the rumor out of the Paint Hall several months ago to be true.
DH87Quote Reply
DH87,
2.9 was this past Sunday’s number. It had a spike for the premier because the show was on hiatus for 18 months. Mad Men is a show that can do no wrong. I can guarantee it will win another Emmy this year. But it is not a huge ratings grabber. That says more about the audience than the show.
Tyrion PimpslapQuote Reply
Anderson,
LOL! “Joffrey is a true gangsta. Even Scarface wouldn’t look at him wrong.”
Tyrion PimpslapQuote Reply
Tyrion Pimpslap,
Yeah. Lol. They’re some funny guys and I think it’s the most satisfying to see non-book readers express an honest enthusiasm for the show. A good listen.
AndersonQuote Reply
Ours is the Fury,
It happens all the time here. Funny how they have no problem with George R. R. Martin being American, though.
KGQuote Reply
HBO was free trial weekend for many cable/sat providers, so the ratings are goina get a little beefed up. I believe the true underlying purpose in the trial on the weekend thrones 2nd debut is to see how many subscriptions the series can sell.
Looks like episode 2 is floating around the internets already? wtf is this?
PerfumeDiveTeamQuote Reply
Wow fabulous numbers! I know I tried to include a #GameofThrones hashtag in my tweets to stay connected with everyone.
And congrats to WiC for the HBO Connect honors! It was a cool idea; I know a lot of people who were very happy with Finn’s participation!
BexQuote Reply
STsauga,
“Grey Wind” and “A Lannister” were briefly trending worldwide, though that was earlier in the day.
BexQuote Reply
Bring on the Twitter post!
LexQuote Reply
Right. This needs to be taken into account, or else we’ll have a ton of dissappointed fanboys, when the ratings go down after.
sjweningsQuote Reply
I bet its 6mil. Sevenhells if it isn’t than old Vic can throw me and the chain gang into the sea!
ChainedPerfumeBoyQuote Reply
sjwenings,
I didn’t see anything about a free preview weekend. Maybe because I already subscribe to the channel. The show is popular regardless.
Tyrion PimpslapQuote Reply
Finished watching ep 2. Much much stronger than the first. Fan who were a little let down by ep 1 like me are going to be in for a treat. Ep 2 was as good as any season one ep.
CharlesQuote Reply
Charles,
I thought the first episode was much stronger on the re-watch. I felt the same way about last season’s eps. as well. It seems to go by too fast on first viewing, but with each viewing they get better.
Tyrion PimpslapQuote Reply
I was a bit disappointed with the season 2 premiere, but ep. 2 feels like the missing 2nd half of the first episode. Together they’re good.
AnvilQuote Reply
thought the first ep of S2 was very good.alot crammed into a small piece.great jumping off episode.roll on episode 2.
gooberQuote Reply
So I guess the early 2nd episode leak comes from the European(dutch) HBOGO site.
What kind of amateur hour is HBO running in their HBOGO department? Is this going to happen for all of season 2, as some have suggested? Again, is HBO run by idiots? Are they *trying* to encourage torrenting?
LarsQuote Reply
Lars,
I know! they’re encouraging torrenting!
Damián ErroQuote Reply
Meh, I’d rather wait for the real thing than just watch some crappy webrip (because it is a webrip). Besides – if I watch it now I’ll then have to wait 2 weeks – what’s the point?
LalaQuote Reply
They are really encouraging torrenting. I just got the dutch HBO and all I want was to watch GoT in good quality on the tv. But dutch HBO only has the ep on HBOgo which when linked to the tv is crappy quality. So I still ended up torrenting the ep even though I have HBO.
Tessa LeonieQuote Reply
Game of Thrones is currently trending on the front page of Yahoo! Thats got to count for something right?
Tre SvatekQuote Reply
JamesL,
you are negative to your very core, man….
the waifQuote Reply
Wen r de numbers gonna come in?
iftikarQuote Reply
it is very Bad that didn’t shoot all that was in the book! It would be interesting to see Brandon Stark, battle of Arthue Dayne and Eddard and the siege of Pike, because Martin described it very beautiful and strong ! I want flashbacks with Ned!
Russian FANQuote Reply
George R.R. Martin is on the time 100 2012 poll list vote for him here….
1)list of candidates….
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2107952,00.html
2)vote for our dear martin, here……..
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2107952_2107953_2109625,00.html
the waifQuote Reply
The buzz in the UK has been off the scale. Even the National newspapers have had interviews and articles on many of the stars. The DVD and Blu-Ray sales of Season One have been HBO’s highest of any series and many people are watching it for the first time that way. GoT is only on Sky Atlantic in the UK and only of you have a Sky Package can you get it. The other vendors such as BT Homevision and Virgin do not have Sky Atlantic so you have to have Sky. It’s also repeated at least 3 times a week, will be on Sky Anytime (for a week) and I know it doesn’t count but will be torrented to death – especially by those that don’t have Sky Atlantic. The demograph is righ across the board from young and old alike and even the most snootyest of critics have universally acclaimed it (and that includes the ultra-conservative Daily Mail who did a large article on it before last season which was fairly damning and very “oh it’s fantasy therefore it’s going to be rubbish” air of superiority. Not so this season, where it is “the one to watch.” I suspect as Westoros is very much based on Feudal Europe that Europeans have resonated very strongly with it. It certainly has made an impression. I don’t know if world-wide sales affect HBO as much as other companies – but the fact that HBO rely very much on Sales and Subscriptions and have opened up branches in other countries and made deals such as the Sky Atlantic one in the UK – the revenue and the buzz should keep GoT on the air for a while yet.
The Red AvengerQuote Reply
I rather have these scenes on a whole new different Movie.
(maybe using the same set and costumes of HBO and investments also?)
I think Robert’s Rebellion has a great, beautiful and sad storyline of their own to be enough for a seperate Movie. Am I growing overgreedy by this great drama series? :)
Burning TQuote Reply
The Guardian’s reporting that the UK S2 premiere got 522K viewers – less than the S1 premiere (743K), but to put in context, FIVE TIMES what Mad Men’s opener to S5 got last week (98K)*. This includes only same-day timeshifted viewing and nothing On Demand.
(*Also more than Mad Men got when it was on BBC4, which is a free-to-air channel.)
So: pretty healthy, in summary, bearing in mind that Sky Atlantic isn’t a free-to-air channel in the UK.
Guardian story is here.
JamieQuote Reply
The Red Avenger,
Hear Me Roar,
JamesL,
talking about buzz on internet and treds,,,here is nice graph for ups and downs of buzz in last 1 and half year for GoT, Walking dead, true blood, mad men….
http://tinyurl.com/cc3cynb
hope this will wash away your woories, jamesL
you can also change worldwide searches to United states and it will show you that buzz for game of thrones is comparable to walking dead. The only reason for lower ratings is that HBO is premium channel and 60-70 million customers less than AMC. And i think that makes GoT even more successful than walking dead. Plus HBO owns their shows compared to other cable channels and that make it more profitable than the other networks.
This season’s premier is gonna get 4.5+million viewer ,i bet……;)
the waifQuote Reply
D
Why are u comparing it to Mad Men??? A 30% decrease is a complete disaster. That would mean 1.5M in the US. There’s something wrong with those numbers
Pau SorianoQuote Reply
Funny. Looking at the results our GRRM is sandwiched between Obama and Beyonce’.
BlatzQuote Reply
It is a bit silly to compare to the first season premiere – there was a huge advertising campaign in the UK, and the numbers immediately dropped off after the premiere last year. The average audience in the UK last year was about 365,000. This year’s premiere is much more an organic attachment to the first season, compared to last year’s premiere, so I don’t see this number as a problem. The peak last year, outside of the premiere, was only 633,000, so for an early season episode, 522,000′s not far off.
OhDanyBoyQuote Reply
So almost 20% less than last years peak?? Still disastrous. That would be around 2.5M in the US.
Pau SorianoQuote Reply
Pau Soriano,
Because the Guardian made the comparison (Mad Men also airs on Sky Atlantic in the UK, but receives more or less equal column inches to GoT in the UK press, in my experience.)
IMO the numbers are healthy (and broadly irrelevant in any case, as Sky has paid to air the series already so HBO – merchandise/DVDs aside – have got their cash in the bank as regards the UK.)
I don’t know what kinds of figures Atlantic shows normally get but my educated guess would be that GoT is pretty dominant.
JamieQuote Reply
Since the comparison has been made to Mad Men, I just want to note that while I am a huge Mad Men fan, watching it was a bit difficult this past Sunday night because I was still on my GOT high. It’s hard to care about Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce looking for the perfect copywriter when I’m still in Westeros.
LinaQuote Reply
Again, the UK numbers were drastically different from the US numbers. The UK viewership varied drastically from week to week. The US viewership increased steadily every week. I think the comparison is not valid – especially in terms of peaks, since the UK numbers were all over the place. The average could potentially be used as a comparison – the fact that it is about 40% higher than the average last year would project to about 3.5 million here, which is a decent number. But again, projecting from the UK to the US is a fool’s game, based on last year’s numbers.
OhDanyBoyQuote Reply
522k for uk is HUGE, regarding a 350ish average S1..
Remember the 743k of last years premiere was due to a free-to-air weekend of Sky Atlantic in the UK, which this year, wasn’t.
So put these numbers in the right context if you want to discuss em.
europQuote Reply
europ,
Excellent point — I’d completely forgotten that Atlantic was free for the opening weekend of S1.
JamieQuote Reply
Something is off then with the way they calculate the ratings in the UK. If they were all over the place I’m not sure what purpose serves to post them here.
But by themselves those numbers are pretty bad. How can u compare averages if we only have the numbers for one show?
I wasn’t extrapolating to try to guess the US ratings, it’s obvious they will be much better
Pau SorianoQuote Reply
Game Of Thrones is awesome in a non-magic way.
Baiden PatersonQuote Reply
3.858 – 1st airing
1.477 – 2nd
.943 – 3rd
according to tvbythenumbers
“Game of Thrones returned with a series high 2.0 adults 18-49 rating to go along with its 3.86 million viewers. Despite the weak premiere for The Killing, Mad Men held up pretty well and was down two tenths from last week’s premiere to a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating”
ClobQuote Reply
Great. Better numbers than the s2 premiere of True Blood.
AnvilQuote Reply
Decent numbers
Pau SorianoQuote Reply
no 6 mil on first showing… weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee /splash!
ChainedPerfumeBoyQuote Reply
No – 520,000 for a Monday night on Sky Atlantic is a fantastic result. It is the most popular show on the channel.
JamesQuote Reply
HBO doesnt air commercials, so ratings whether big or not-big doesnt even matter, since theyre not selling any ad-space either way. As long as theres a significant portion of subscribers watching, or new people subscribing to watch, HBO will continue the show.
And comparing HBO shows to AMC shows is retarded. HBO is a premium channel you have to pay monthly to subscribe to. AMC is a free channel, available on most above-standard cable packages. So ofcourse the ratings for HBO will be lower since its costs money to get it!
pointQuote Reply