After Game of Thrones proved that audiences were hungry for sumptuous long-form fantasy television, streaming networks have been searching for a show to match its success. Now the two biggest prospects are going head-to-head in a ratings war, with Amazon Prime’s Tolkien-inspired The Rings of Power squaring off against HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon.
Both shows premiered to rave reviews and positive responses from fans, but it seems like there’s a clear winner when it comes to the ratings war. Variety is reporting that the first two episodes of The Rings of Power scored a massive 25 million viewers on Amazon Prime for the first 24 hours it was available, while HBO says that 10 million watched House of the Dragon.
There’s a bit of fuzziness in these numbers as Amazon’s are global while HBO’s are domestic, but if there’s a 15 million viewer difference between the two it seems safe to assume that The Rings of Power came out on top overall.
A number of factors contributed to The Rings of Power‘s victory: public enthusiasm for The Lord of the Rings is high, the marketing campaign has made The Rings of Power feel like a must-watch show, audiences may believe House of the Dragon requires knowledge of Game of Thrones to understand, or simply that more people have Amazon Prime subscriptions than HBO/HBO Max.
It’ll be interesting to see whether The Rings of Power maintains its lead next week, as there’ll inevitably be a drop-off in viewership after the much-hyped premiere. Whatever else happens, fantasy fans should be over the moon that we have two incredible shows airing at once.