House of the Dragon came out of the gate very strong, setting a record as the most watched premiere episode in HBO’s history. Impressively, ratings actually went up for the second episode, which is pretty rare for a new series.
That trend continued with this past Sunday’s new episode, “King of the Narrow Sea,” aka “The One With All The Sex.” Variety reports that viewership was up 5% when taking into account both linear viewership and people watching on HBO Max. Meanwhile, the premiere has now been viewed by over 30 million households.
Essentially, the show is popular. Of course, it had some advantages going in. I said above that it’s rare for ratings to increase for a new series, but House of the Dragon isn’t exactly a new series in the usual sense of the term; it’s a follow-up to Game of Thrones, HBO’s most successful series ever, so of course people are interested.
Viewership for House of the Dragon on the rise
But the fact that viewership is rising week over week is very encouraging; it indicates not only that people interested to see what this show was about to start with, and not only that they liked it well enough to stick around, but that they liked it so much they told their friends, who also started watching. This is the kind of thing that gets studio executives doing happy backflips in their corner offices.
Will the upward trend continue? We’ll see when House of the Dragon returns this upcoming Sunday for “We Light The Way.” If the quality level remains as high as it’s been, we could be looking at another Game of Thrones-level phenomenon here. Maybe lightning will strike twice just this once.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels