While the House of the Dragon season 3 premiere, which covered the long-awaited Battle of the Gullet, boasts a 9.2/10 rating on IMDb, the sophomore installment of the season has so far dethroned it, opening with a staggering 9.4/10.
IMDb scores don't mean everything (and they're liable to changing as more ratings flood in), although they're certainly a fantastic 'at a glance' gauge for seeing which House of the Dragon episodes are the most popular among viewers. Last week, the season 3 premiere scored a series-record 9.4/10 rating out of 10k ratings, setting off the series in style, even if that rating has since dropped slightly to 9.2/10 (which is expected, with it now garnering over 35K ratings). Similarly, episode 2, "Queen's Landing," has matched the initial score of the premiere despite a larger pool of ratings, currently standing at 9.4/10 from 13K ratings at the time of this writing.
This 9.4/10 score makes it the joint-top rated House of the Dragon episode of all time, alongside season 2, episode 4, "The Red Dragon and the Gold," which covered the Battle of Rook's Rest.
While "Queen's Landing" does not feature a high-scale battle, it instead chronicles the emotional fallout of the Battle of the Gullet. It begins with Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) learning of the death of her son Jace (Harry Collett). In addition, as the war momentum shifts and turns against the Greens, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) attempts to flee King's Landing, paving the way for Daemon (Matt Smith) and Rhaenyra to claim the city for themselves. In the final moments, as a high-profile sacrifice, Daemon makes Rhaenyra kill Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) — she executes him before Alicent enters the throne room and beholds her father's dead body.
Unlike the fast-paced, action-packed premiere, this episode brought raw emotion and advanced the plot through the family drama and devastation at the core of House of the Dragon. Think of previous episodes like "The Lord of the Tides" — it carried that sort of weight.
Naturally, we expect the 9.4/10 rating of "Queen's Landing" to drop slightly as tens of thousands more ratings flood the IMDb system. However, these initial scores rarely shift substantially.
As it happens, 9.4/10 is still not the highest-rated episode of the franchise this year. That accolade goes to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episodes 4, 'Seven' and 5, 'In the Name of the Mother' — both of which have retained 9.5/10 ratings on IMDb.
House of the Dragon season 3 continues Sundays on HBO.
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