With over 10 million views total across all platforms, “House of the Dragon” episode 2 surpasses the series’ record-breaking premiere in terms of viewership. The Targaryen family is followed in “House of the Dragon,” which debuted on HBO on August 21 and takes place 200 years before Game of Thrones. Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, two former Game of Thrones employees, will serve as the prequel series’ showrunners in place of David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Milly Alcock, Rhys Ifans, Emily Carey, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, and Graham McTavish round out the ensemble cast.
HBO started investigating other spinoffs in George R.R. Martin’s Westeros due to the enormous success of Game of Thrones, including another prequel series starring Naomi Watts that was not taken up after the pilot. Some people were worried that the divisive final season of Game of Thrones might discourage fans from seeing a prequel because of the venomous reaction to season 8. That wasn’t the case at all when the HBO series “House of the Dragon“ received a record-breaking 9.9 million viewers for its premiere last week and was subsequently renewed for a second season.
According to Inside HBO Max, the second episode of the “House of the Dragon” has surpassed the record-breaking series premiere in terms of audience. According to Nielsen and other first-party data, 10.2 million domestic viewers watched the second episode on HBO Max and linear television together. Take a look at some of the figures below:
Viewership of @HouseOfDragon Episode 2 was up 2% Sunday night, tallying 10.2 million viewers domestically across @HBOMax and linear telecasts, based on a combination of Nielsen and first party data. pic.twitter.com/vE1bdFVoy2
— Inside HBO Max (@InsideHBOMax) August 29, 2022
After only one week of availability, “House of the Dragon” has already knocked on the doors of 25 million individual viewers in the United States thanks to a 2% rise in viewership from its series premiere to episode 2. Game of Thrones, its precursor, has also had many increases in viewers recently, marking 8 weeks in a row of rising. Martin’s fictional world is more well-liked than ever, as evidenced by the fact that Game of Thrones was the second-most watched program on HBO Max last week, trailing only “House of the Dragon.”
It wouldn’t have surprised anyone if “House the Dragon’s” viewership sharply declined following the show’s debut as the enormous anticipation naturally started to fade. This happened with another prequel series, Better Call Saul, which received over 7 million viewers for its series premiere in 2015 but dropped to only 3.4 million for episode 2. This was because Better Call Saul rode on the excitement of Breaking Bad’s gratifying conclusion. Instead, “House of the Dragon” has once more surprised expectations with a 2% increase in viewers from the eagerly awaited season debut to episode 2. Game of Thrones has a huge viewership that “House of the Dragon” already benefits from, and as the fantasy franchise continues to gain popularity, it may eventually outpace that of its predecessor.
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