House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones both break onto Nielsen’s top 10 list

There are a lot of services out there that purport to tell you how many people are watching this or that show on streaming. You can listen to the streaming services themselves, but they usually only release numbers when it makes them look good, and their methods of measurement can often be self-serving. Parrot Analytics measures how much people are talking about a given show or movie, but that’s not quite same thing as how many people are actually watching it.

For that, you turn to Nielsen, which has been measuring TV ratings since the 1950s. It’s taken them a while to get a grip on streaming, but they’re finally starting to release reliable numbers with regularity.

Nielsen started reporting streaming numbers for HBO Max just last month, not long after the premiere of House of the Dragon, the network’s new Game of Thrones prequel series. Per Deadline, both shows came out strong. Check out the top 10 most watched shows on streaming for the week of August 22-28:

1. Echoes (Netflix) – 7 episodes, 1.123 billion minutes of viewing
2. Me Time (Netflix) – film, 971M min.
3. Game Of Thrones (HBO Max) – 73 eps., 909M min.
4. Stranger Things (Netflix) – 34 eps., 890M min.
5. NCIS (Netflix) – 354 eps., 770M min.
6. House Of The Dragon (HBO Max) – 2 episodes, 741M min.
7. The Sandman (Netflix) – 11 eps., 681M min.
8. Cocomelon (Netflix) – 18 eps., 677M min.
9. Bluey (Disney+) – 112 eps., 615M min.
10. The Big Bang Theory (HBO Max) – 265 eps., 606M min.

HBO Max has a strong first week on the Nielsen top 10

I remind you that this list covers the time period for the week after the first episode of House of the Dragon premiered, meaning that there was only an hour of content to work with right up until the last days of reporting, when Episode 2 released. I expect that the numbers for House of the Dragon have only gone up now that we have five episodes to enjoy. Also, cool to see Game of Thrones back on the chart, no doubt buoyed by the hype surrounding the new show.

I also like seeing The Sandman doing so well over on Netflix, which still hasn’t renewed the show for a second season. Get on that, Ted Sarandos! As for Echoes and Me Time, I literally have no idea what they are. Shows out out-of-the-loop I am when it comes to shows and movies that don’t involve dragons and dream kings.

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