Just when everyone was starting to get over the atrocious Game of Thrones finale, HBO has enticed us with another royal saga to lure us back into the Game of Thrones Universe. The story of the infamous house that ruled over the Seven Kingdoms before Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark’s rebellion. The house whose people are closer to gods than men. The house that tamed the greatest power the world has seen- dragons. The house our Mother of Dragons – Daenerys Stormborn belonged to: House Targaryen or rather House of the Dragon. The series is a prequel to the events of Game of Thrones. The shows events are set 172 years before Daenerys Targaryen. The prequel focuses on King Viserys I’s rule. His inability to give the realm a male heir has rendered kingdom in a state unsurety.
His heir is to be decided between his brother Daemon Targaryen and his eldest daughter Rhaenyra Targaryen. On paper this seems to be the central conflict of the show, although as these events are taking place in Westeros things will never be simple. The pilot became HBO’s biggest debut with gathering as much as 9.986 Million viewers in the first 24 hours. While many judged this success was simply an extension of the fan base that Game of Thrones has left behind but the follow-up episode proved everyone wrong. The second episode of the prequel out did the first when it comes to viewership numbers as there was a 2% growth. Meaning not only did the show retain its audience but in fact added eyeballs. Naturally, I was keen on seeing how would House of the Dragon Episode 3 perform and well, we have the numbers now.
Is House of the Dragon Episode 3 Bigger than Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?
House of the Dragon Episode 3 debuted yesterday and what an episode it was. The prequel is certainly keeping up with the quality a Game of Thrones product demands. The prequel is getting better with every episode and so are the viewership numbers. We know episode 2 topped the pilot with 2% and accumulated 10.2 Million viewers in the first 24 hours of its release. Now, everyone including me was looking forward to episode 3 and how it would perform. Well, it seems like it has done alright.
I’m just kidding. The episode 3 has taken the show to new heights. Just a few days ago, we got a report that Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power has debuted on Amazon Prime Video with 25 Million viewers watching the show in the first 24 hours. In that article, I mentioned that Rings of Power has beaten House of the Dragon when it comes to viewership numbers. Well, I’d like to say that House of the Dragon has turned the tide but seems not. In fact House of the Dragon experienced its first linear drop in viewership. Episode 3 lost 28% of viewership on Cable when compared to Episode 2. Episode 2 had 3.5 million viewers on cable while Episode 3 lost one million of them with 2.5 Million.
The reason for this might be the Labor Day Weekend. As the holiday delayed people from watching the episode. This would explain why things aren’t so grim when we talk about the prequel’s performance on HBO Max. The amount of viewers that missed the episode on cable watched it on HBO Max as the Episode 3’s viewership numbers are up by 27% compared to Episode 2 on HBO Max. Episode 3: “Second of his Name” has garnered 16 Million plus viewers in the first 24 hours of its premiere.
While the numbers are definitely high they’re not as good as Rings of Power. Rings of Power amassed so many viewers because of the abundant fans of Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s Trilogy, House of the Dragon has achieved its viewers based on its quality. Rings of Power’s quality is known to all, both the episodes were a drag fest and even die-hard fans of Lord of the Rings would agree that the series is atrocious with the way it has been adapted. I’m certain that the viewership of LOTR: Rings of Power would drop with episode 3.
Regardless, House of the Dragon episode is already starting to become one of the biggest shows of all time. I’m sure if the show’s quality doesn’t waver in the coming episodes then the viewership of the show is just going to get high. Based on the numbers, there are at least 30 Million active viewers of House of the Dragons in the United States alone. Based on the viewership as well as the ratings, we have a clear winner between the two prequels that we’ve gotten this year, its House of the Dragon.
The GOT prequel has an incredible ensemble cast that includes Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans. Along with the main cast, the supporting cast of the show includes- Milly Alcock, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Emily Carey, Harry Collett, Ryan Corr, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jefferson Hall, David Horovitch, Wil Johnson, John Macmillan, Graham McTavish, Ewan Mitchell, Theo Nate, Matthew Needham, Bill Paterson, Phia Saban, Gavin Spokes, Savannah Steyn, and more.
House of the Dragon’s first three episodes are 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.
If you have any questions regarding House of the Dragon, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
I had “moderate” hopes for “HotD” (House of the Dragons) because I LOVED GoT!
I’m finding the dialogue slow, and the dragons kinda of “wimpy” looking.
Except for the scene in episode 2 when the Princess rides in to cool down the testosterone level between the armies! Episode 3 battle scene to me was unrealistic in its staging. Are we really to believe that Dameon only got hit with 3 arrows after being shot at by over a 100 men!!??
With all that said, I thing the King, the Princess , Dameon and the king with the “white dread locks” (sorry forgot his name but LOVE his acting) are the best characters.
When it comes to portraying the dragons, I’m wondering if the show runners even watched GoT??
Come on guys, this is House of the “Dragons” so elevate the CGI on the dragons PLEASE!!
Drogo set a high bar! And let’s see more close ups of the dragon riders mounting, riding and dismounting the dragons like they did in GoT.
Oh well, maybe I’ll never be able to over come my constant comparing HotD to GoT
But I’m gonna hang in there!😉
A sound opinion indeed! Thanks for sharing it with us.
I read the Esquire article and can´t see the numbers you are referring to.
No other newspaper has released them either, so I think it´s a kind of misunderstanding until I see a reasonable source.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a40911484/house-of-the-dragon-episode-3-recap/
The article was written back when the only info about the topic was mentioned in The Esquire article. Upon receiving more information, we can confirm that these figures are indeed untrue. Thanks for your observation.
Actually they have lost almost 30% on cable (see collider), please check your sources.
At the time of writing, Esquire was the only one with information on the matter. As new information has emerged through various sources. We’ve made the necessary changes. Thank you for your observation.