Viewership for The Rings of Power season 2 far lower than for season 1, according to early numbers

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is back for a second season, and things are going...okay. We've mostly been enjoying this Lord of the Rings prequel show here at WiC, although enjoying this show requires making peace with the fact that it has a lot of elements that are just sort of...meh. It's fine, at least according to us. Mileage will vary.

But who cares what we think? How many people are watching the series? The most reliable measure of viewership comes from Nielsen, which releases viewership ratings about a month after a show airs, using all that lead time to make sure their numbers are correct, I imagine. But Deadline has numbers from SambaTV, which is hooked into 1.8 million households. According to them, the first three episodes of The Rings of Power season 2 (which were released all at once) were watched by 902,000 U.S. households within the first four days of release. That's down from 1.8 million households that tuned into the first three episodes of season 1 over that same timeframe when they released back in 2022.

There are some caveats worth mentioning, like that SambaTV doesn't include mobile watching, which is always becoming a bigger part of the streaming pie. But still, a decline of 50% isn't good.

Another caveat: we can't be sure these numbers are completely accurate. Only Amazon knows for sure, and they release information only when and if they want to. They've said that the series premiere of The Rings of Power brought in the biggest audience for a Prime Video show up to that point. I'm guessing it still holds that title.

Will The Rings of Power season 2 pick up more viewers as it goes on? Will it slip into obscurity? We note that a third season hasn't been officially greenlit yet, although the team may already be laying groundwork. And the show is famously expensive to make; if the numbers aren't to Amazon's liking, might they cut their losses?

It may be up to you! New episodes of The Rings of Power drop Thursdays on Prime Video.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.