'House of the Dragon' Becomes HBO's Highest-Rated Series Premiere Ever With Almost 10 Million Viewers Tuning In
The Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon debuted to a record-breaking 9.99 million viewers on Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max, according to a statement released by Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday.
According to Variety, the ratings for the premiere were the highest since before the era of streaming and included programmes that eventually made their debuts on the since-closed HBO Now and HBO Go. The figures are based on Sunday night's linear broadcasts and HBO Max streams.
The prequel to the hugely popular Game of Thrones series had its viewership more than double since its 2011 launch, when it drew 4.2 million viewers. 2019 saw a record 17.9 million viewers watch the series' last season premiere.
The HBO hit Euphoria - which is the network's second-most watched show in history behind Game of Thrones - garnered 2.4 million viewers for its season two debut this past January.
Ryan Condal, a co-showrunner with director Miguel Sapochnik, and Martin conceived the programme. Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans are among the actors who appear in the series.
HBO/HBO Max's chief content officer Casey Bloys said 'it was wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return with us to Westeros last night,' Variety reported.
Bloys added: 'House of the Dragon features an incredibly talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into the production, and we’re ecstatic with viewers’ positive response.
'We look forward to sharing with audiences what else George, Ryan and Miguel have in store for them this season.'
The overall numbers from the network came in the wake of news that House of the Dragon debuted to the best same-day viewership of the year for premium cable networks or streaming services in the U.S. with 2.6 million households tuning in Sunday.
The stats were based on the viewers who watched the debut episode on HBO, and its streaming service HBO Max in its initial six hours of release, TV analytics company Samba TV reported, according to the New York Post.
The show attracted more than twice as many viewers on the same day as Netflix's Stranger Things' season four premiere earlier this year, which attracted 1.2 million households.
The true opportunity for HBO in the upcoming weeks, according to Samba TV CEO and co-founder Ashwin Navin, is to increase viewing beyond the ardent existing fan base.
Stats from Samba indicated that households bringing in at least $125,000 were 44 percent more likely to watch House of the Dragon.
HBO told the outlet that a 'small portion of users' were impacted by the technical issue, and an HBO spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that the issue was more likely to impact viewers who watched the show via Amazon technology such as the Fire TV stick.
HBO said in a statement: 'House of the Dragon is being successfully viewed by millions of HBO Max subscribers this evening. We’re aware of a small portion of users attempting to connect via Fire TV devices that are having issues and are in the process of resolving for those impacted users.'
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