The Game of Thrones Universe is expanding with HBO’s newest and greatest show. The new series is a prequel to the events of Game of Thrones and it will tell the epic and glorious story of House Targaryen or as you’d rather know them as House of the Dragon. The show is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. HBO is planning to re-taste the success of Game of Thrones, I mean when you have the biggest show in TV history it is quite a bummer when it ends and that too on a sour note. Even if Game of Thrones has ended, HBO plans on making money by giving fans more stories from the same universe. At the time of writing, there are seven GOT spin-offs/prequels in development. One of them being House of the Dragon. The show will focus on Daenerys’ House
The series will feature the might of the Targaryens and their reign on the Seven Kingdoms until things went south. The first season of the show is debuting on HBO and HBO Max next month and is said to have 10 episodes. The showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik intend to make at least 5 seasons. If the show plans on doing that then it has to continue to perform well HBO throughout its many seasons. However, before we fantasize about the future. House of the Dragon Season 1 has to set the high standards for HBO this year. A recent pre-screening of the show was held at Los Angeles and everyone who witnessed it couldn’t praise the show enough. As the show’s premiere was closing in the anticipation regarding was immense. Yesterday, the series’ pilot aired and it couldn’t resist but create some huge records.
House of the Dragon has a Bigger Opening than Game of Thrones?
Game of Thrones truly was a television phenomenon like no other. Even if the final season might be the worst things that television has witnessed. It was truly a challenge for House of the Dragon to find its new identity and draw in its audience even though they’ve tasted betrayal before and by the reports it looks the prequel has accomplished the task and passed with flying colors. House of the Dragon’s Pilot recorded 10 million viewers streaming the series on HBO Max.
The series has become the biggest opening on HBO Max. It has beaten the original series that had an opening of 2.2 Million at that time. Well, even if on paper it suggests that HOD has beaten GOT but in reality it is not true. Firstly, majority of audience that the prequel has gotten is thanks to Game of Thrones. Also during Game of Thrones’ time it directly aired on HBO and a streaming platform wasn’t available. It was like catching a live match. So, 2.2 Million is a pretty big number considering that.
House of Dragon across linear and streaming platforms in its Sunday night debut or Monday morning debut has garnered 9.986 Million viewers. This number is despite many viewers complaining about power outages and HBO Max app crashing while streaming the pilot. This is a huge win for HBO and the showrunners. Casey Bloys who is the Chief Content Officer at HBO & HBO Max has expressed his gratitude to fans about the historical debut of the show through a statement.
He said, “It was wonderful to see millions of ‘Game of Thrones’ fans return with us to Westeros last night. ‘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.”
There were rumors that House of the Dragon has already been renewed for a second season but Bloys had clarified that a second season will be ordered only after seeing the response to the first season. Well looking at these numbers, House of the Dragon’s second season is basically confirmed. While most of the views that the pilot have gotten is a Game of Thrones hangover but moving forward the views that the show will get will be based on its quality and not because of its predecessor’s success.
Moving forward, House of the Dragon has a bigger challenge of keeping and holding the audience it has gotten. All it takes is one bad episode to lose your audience forever. If Game of Thrones has taught us anything it is that. Hopefully, House of the Dragon doesn’t drop in quality and soars higher than ever. The prequel stars Paddy Considine, Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Milly Alcock, Graham McTavish, and Rhys Ifans.
House of the Dragon’s Pilot is currently streaming on HBO Max or Disney+. New episodes will debut on every Sunday or Monday on HBO and HBO Max or Disney+ Hotstar depending on the region you live in, at 9 pm or 6.30 am.
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