Well, it’s a good thing that HBO Max did not cancel this HOUSE OF THE DRAGON before it had a chance on TV. Otherwise, HBO and its HBO Max streaming service would have missed out on a lot of viewership.
The show concluded its first season with 9.3 million viewers Sunday night across all platforms, based on a combination of Nielsen and first-party data, despite heavy-hitting competition from Sunday Night Football and the final game of the Major League Baseball ALCS between the NY Yankees and Houston Astros. That marks the biggest finale night for an HBO series since the conclusion of GAME OF THRONES in May 2019.
“We’re so thrilled to see House of the Dragon catch fire with Game of Thrones fans around the world, as well as new viewers who are discovering the world of Westeros for the first time,” said Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and HBO Max. “Congrats to George, Ryan, Miguel and the whole House of the Dragon team on an incredible first season.”
How many times have you heard someone say, “Why doesn’t Hollywood ever do anything original”? Well, it does and did with the original Game Of Thrones series. But once it finds something that takes hold, such as the “Marvel Formula” or variations of CSI most media companies will keep tapping that well until its dry. But there appears to be a lot of life in the GOT Universe.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON debuted on Sunday, August 21, to the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO and the best series launch on HBO Max across the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. All episodes of the series are now averaging 29 million viewers in the U.S., more than tripling their average debut night audience with strong catch-up viewing.
For comparison, this is tracking closely behind the average audience for Season 7 of GAME OF THRONES, which averaged 32.8M viewers per episode in the U.S.
Additionally, fans have flocked to social media to express their fandom, with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON ranking as the #1 most social series across all TV and streaming since its premiere, based on Talkwater’s total interactions rankings. The series trended #1 on Twitter for 10 consecutive hours in the U.S. Sunday night, and global social conversation volume was up more than 30% vs. the series premiere in August.
The new show helped out its older sibling, which if you remember did not have rave reviews as the epic finished its story. But not only have people flocked to see what happened before the story wrapped. Game Of Thrones also continued to see elevated viewership as new episodes of HOD debuted. The series saw month-over-month gains in viewership this summer leading up to the premiere of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, culminating in its all-time highest weekly audience on HBO Max following the HOUSE OF THE DRAGON premiere.
Outside of the U.S., the prequel has surpassed GOT Season 8, making it the most-viewed HBO title ever in Latin America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan on an HBO streaming service. (The series streams on HBO Max in 39 countries in Latin America, 21 countries across Europe and on HBO GO in SEA, HK and TW.)
The complete first season of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is now available to stream on HBO Max.
