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Lord of the Ratings

In media and entertainment circles, it has become irresistible to reductively compare the first-day numbers for HBO’s House of the Dragon (10 million viewers!) and Amazon’s The Rings of Power (25 million streams!!). But dig a little deeper and the data tells a more interesting, and complex, story.

game of thrones
Discovery says that 9.986 million people watched the premiere of House of the Dragon. Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO
Julia Alexander
September 6, 2022

Amazon’s long-anticipated, zillion-dollars-an-episode foray into the I.P. big leagues formally commenced on Friday with the premiere of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series, which received strong reviews and enjoyed its own veritable Prime Day-style marketing blitz (including ads on the retail site), secured 25 million viewers within its first 24 hours, according to Amazon. This also marks the first major viewership announcement Amazon has released for one of its original titles. (It’s easy to see why.)