HBO Max has announced that the premiere of House of the Dragon marks the largest series premiere in HBO history with ten million viewers, which actually crashed the streaming service.
The details include the that premiere episode drew 9.986 million viewers across linear and HBO Max platforms in the U.S. Sunday night, the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO.
According to the official announcement, the premiere also marked the largest series launch on HBO Max across the U.S., LatAm, and EMEA, driving an unprecedented level of concurrent streams on the platform, with it said that typically, Sunday night viewership for an HBO series will represent just 20%-40% of the show’s total gross audience.
House of the Dragon was also a hit on social media, where fans showed up in droves to celebrate the return to Westeros as “House of the Dragon” was the longest trending topic on Twitter, ranking #1 for 14 hours straight, and trended #1 on Google Trends.
“Wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return”
“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,” said Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer, HBO & HBO Max. “We look forward to sharing with audiences what else George, Ryan, and Miguel have in store for them this season.”
Additionally, the original Game of Thrones series just wrapped its strongest week on HBO Max to date, capping off a seven-week stretch of week-over-week growth in engagement leading up to the premiere of House of the Dragon. The weekly average for Game of Thrones in August is nearly 90% above June and nearly 50% above July.
In our review, Cosmic Book News EIC Matt McGloin stated that Matt Smith shines and is the breakout star of the show and that the premiere episode shows promise.
New episodes of House of the Dragon will debut each week at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max, leading up to the finale on October 23.
Credits: Co-Creator/Executive Producer, George R.R. Martin; Co-Creator/Co-Showrunner/Executive Producer/Writer, Ryan Condal; Co-Showrunner/Executive Producer/Director, Miguel Sapochnik; Executive Producers Sara Hess, Jocelyn Diaz, Vince Gerardis, Ron Schmidt. Based on George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood.”
