The number of words per minute on Game of Thrones went down over time

HBO’s Game of Thrones definitely went through stages over its near-decade on the air. The early seasons were cheaper affairs, and featured none of the specular action scenes the show would later become known for. People would get attached to characters like Ned or Robb Stark, only for them to be killed off, and for the focus of the show to shift.

Apparently, the show also got less wordy as it went on, as this chart shows:

"(No Spoilers) [OC] The number of words per minute for each Game of Thrones episode from asoiaf"

That’s pretty remarkable: with each season, Game of Thrones became less and less talky, with the eighth and final season having the fewest words per minute of all. Let’s think a little about what that means.

Speaking in general terms, this makes some sense. As the show went along and the production team got into a rhythm, it became more confident letting the visuals, acting and music carry the emotion of a scene. And I’m not just talking about battle scenes, although that certainly had an effect; you’re not talking a lot when you’re fighting for your life. Think of the montage that opens the season 6 finale, “The Winds of Winter,” which consists of several minutes of people preparing for a trial at the Sept of Baelor (a trial that never happens, thanks to Cersei Lannister). There’s no action in this section, per se, and very little talking, but it still says a lot about the characters:

I can think of lots of latter-season scenes like this, such as when Cersei and Daenerys stare at each other outside the walls of King’s Landing as Missandei is beheaded in season 8, or Cersei’s long walk in season 5. Fewer words per minute isn’t the same thing as less writing. Scenes like this would bring down the words per minute average.

At the same time, in the later seasons, a lot of fans had problems with character turns that didn’t feel properly set up, particularly in season 8. Looking at this chart, I can’t help but think that it probably would have helped to have a little more dialog cluing us in on what the characters were thinking and feeling. A note for the next epic fantasy series?

In terms of nuts and bolts, it looks like the chattiest episode of the series was “The Wolf and the Lion” at over 70 words per minute. Meanwhile, the quietest was the third episode of season 8, “The Long Night,” which was basically one long battle scene against the Night King and his army of the dead. That episode featured around 15 words per minute, and is an outlier even for that year.

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