Latest, awesome House of the Dragon episode gets season-high ratings

The latest episode of House of the Dragon, "The Red Dragon and the Gold," is definitely the best of the second season so far. The first two thirds masterfully built up to a massive dragon-vs-dragon battle above the castle of Rook's Rest. The battle itself was spectacular; not only was it a tragic thrill watching these beasts tear each other apart, but there were lots of great moments for the characters to shine.

The fans seem to agree. On IMDb, "The Red Dragon and the Gold" currently has a rating of 9.7/10 based on 28,000 votes. So far as IMDb goes, that makes it the highest-rated episode of the series to date, besting the season 1 episode "The Lord of the Tides," which has a rating of 9.3/10. (I think I still prefer "The Lord of the Tides," but let's not get off track.)

"The Red Dragon and the Gold" is also a winner in terms of viewership. According to Variety, it was watched by 8.1 million people across HBO and Max on Sunday, a high point for the season. Maybe word got around ahead of time that this was the episode to watch, or maybe people were ready to relax and enjoy some TV at the end of the long July 4 weekend. Apparently the week of July 1-7 marked the show's “strongest week yet” on Max. Because if you have days off, how better to spend them than watching the dragons dance?

The season 2 premiere, "A Son for a Son," was watched by 7.8 million people on the night, which makes it the second most-watched episode of the season. A few weeks out, the premiere's tally is now approaching 25 million. These are great numbers, although it should be noted that the first season premiere was watched by nearly 10 million people on the night when it aired back in 2022. (Also, so far as I know, HBO didn't release numbers for the second and third episodes of season 2, which probably means they didn't think them worth bragging about.)

I think that makes sense. When House of the Dragon first premiered, a lot of people tuned in because they were curious to see what HBO would do with a Game of Thrones prequel show. That initial curiosity has died down, but the show is clearly working well enough for lots of people to want to follow it on its own terms.

HBO has already renewed House of the Dragon for season 3; we even have some info on when filming might happen, which will hopefully keep the wait between new seasons to a minimum. HBO is also premiering a new Game of Thrones show, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, next year. So even if we have to wait two years for another season of House of the Dragon, we won't have to wait two years to return to Westeros.

But all that's in the future. New episodes of House of the Dragon season 2 air Sunday nights on HBO and Max.

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