House of the Dragon returned to strong viewership over the weekend, however it nonetheless represents fairly a dip for the Game of Thrones prequel.
Per numbers from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Nielsen (through Variety), House of the Dragon attracted 7.8 million viewers when Season 2 premiered on HBO and Max on Sunday evening. To be clear, these numbers are removed from shabby, however it marks a 22% drop from Season 1’s opener again in 2022, which marked the largest premiere in HBO’s historical past with practically 10 million viewers.
What’s the rationale for the drop? Well, for one, it was Father’s Day, and in keeping with THR, Nielsen reported traditionally low TV viewership for that night, affecting different main broadcasts like The Tony Awards. It’s additionally merely been awhile since House of the Dragon Season 1 debuted practically two years in the past, and it faces some competitors in reveals like The Boys, which returned to Prime Video final week.
For its half, WBD additionally touted some positives in its reporting of the numbers, saying Sunday marked Max’s greatest single day globally since its launch. It did not, nevertheless, present particular numbers for Max’s viewership total on Sunday, and it is also not an enormous shock contemplating Max simply turned out there to Europe in May.
It’ll be fascinating to see, too, how House of the Dragon Season 2 rises or falls because it continues. Season 1 hit its peak in its second episode, which premiered to 10.2 million viewers. Meanwhile, HBO is not slowing down on its funding within the Game of Thrones universe, having simply launched the primary picture of one other spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, earlier at the moment because it started filming.
IGN gave the primary episode of House of the Dragon Season 2 a 7/10, writing, “We might look again on ‘A Son for a Son’ as efficient groundwork, however it’s undeniably missing within the sort of pleasure that this sequence can supply at its finest.”
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing leisure reporting. When she’s not writing or modifying, you could find her studying fantasy novels or enjoying Dungeons & Dragons.
