HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ Premiere Viewership Soars to 20 Million

The “Game of Thrones” prequel is already a certified hit for the premium cable network

HBO House of the Dragon Viewership
HBO

After posting an initial Sunday night premiere viewership of 10 million across linear and digital earlier this week, HBO’s “House of the Dragon” has soared passed 20 million in the U.S. across HBO, on-demand and HBO Max, the network said Friday.

No wonder HBO has already renewed the show for a second season.

The “Game of Thrones” prequel spinoff’s Sunday debut numbers already cemented the series as the biggest launch for any new original series in HBO history (accounting for HBO Max). At the time, HBO noted that Sunday night viewership typically represents just 20% to 40% of a show’s total gross audience and that delayed multiplatform viewing would likely lead to bigger upcoming totals. Well, mission accomplished as the “House of the Dragon” premiere is surging since it first aired.

“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,” Casey Bloys, chief content officer, HBO and HBO Max, said in a statement Monday. “We look forward to sharing with audiences what else George, Ryan, and Miguel have in store for them this season.” 

“We are beyond proud of what the entire ‘House of the Dragon’ team has accomplished with Season 1. Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV. A huge thank you to George [R.R. Martin], Ryan [Condal, co-creator and co-showrunner], and Miguel [Sapochnik, co-showrunner/director] for leading us on this journey. We couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with Season 2,” Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO programming, said in a statement Friday.

The “Game of Thrones” series finale was watched by a record 19.3 million live multiplatform viewers in 2019, including the most-watched single telecast HBO ever recorded with 13.6 million linear live viewers (which does not account for digital viewership). The final season averaged more than 40 million viewers per episode when accounting for delayed viewing across all platforms, according to HBO.

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