'House of the Dragon' Draws In Huge Streaming Numbers For Premiere Episode
By Jeffrey Harris on September 18, 2022 at 1:00 AM EDT
HBO's "House of the Dragon" is already a smash hit, and it appears the show is already racking up streaming accolades after its premiere episode launched on August 21.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new "Game of Thrones" spinoff television series drew in an impressive 327 million minutes in just a few hours after the show launched at 9 PM ET on August 21.
The show did not crack Nielsen's Top 10 Acquired Series list for August 15-21 because it was only available for a short time at the tail end of that time frame. However, as THR reports, the show still nearly made it into the Top 10 rankings for the entire week despite the short time frame it had been made available. "House of the Dragon" came in shortly behind the Canadian drama series "Heartland" which entered the rankings at No. 10 with 422 million viewing minutes.
'House of the Dragon' Already Racking Up Huge Streaming Numbers
"House of the Dragon" will stay part of Nielsen's Acquired Series rankings for future weekly streaming charts since the show airing on HBO is considered its first run. The debut episode of the fantasy series on HBO drew nearly a reported 10 million viewers.
With the premiere episode of the show running at 65 minutes, that would suggest an average of 5.03 million streaming television viewers in the first few hours after it dropped. That is nearly half the audience that watched the series' initial broadcast on HBO.
The streaming interest in "House of the Dragon" also boosted the watch time for "Game of Thrones." THR reports that the original series had a 30% increase in viewing ahead of "House of the Dragon's" launch, with about 559 million minutes of watch time.
Other streaming winners included Netflix's "The Sandman" television series. The show topped Nielsen's Original Series rankings for August 15-21 with 946 million viewing minutes. Meanwhile, "Stranger Things" came in at No. 2 with only 946 million viewing minutes. This is the first time the show dropped below a billion viewing minutes since the show's fourth season debuted in May.
Elsewhere, Marvel Studios' "She-Hulk: Attorney" at law was unable to crack outside the Top 10 Original Series rankings for its first episode. The show finished less than 395 million viewing minutes, which is the future for Netflix's "Instant Home" at No. 10.
'Game of Thrones' Spinoff Expected To Dominate Nielsen Streaming Charts
HBO's "House of the Dragon" is expected to lead the rankings for the following week. If these were just the initial streaming numbers for the show just a few hours after it launched, it will be interesting to see the type of audience the show garners for the following week when it has been out for several days.
It should be noted that Nielsen's streaming numbers only measure U.S. audiences and only streaming done via television sets. Nielsen's rankings do not include streaming on a computer or mobile devices.
George R.R. Martin, the original author of the book series "A Song of Ice and Fire" for which "House of the Dragon" is based, revealed during a recent interview that he is more involved with the new spinoff series than he was for later seasons of Game of Thrones.
"House of the Dragon" is airing its first 10-episode season on HBO. New episodes debut on Sunday.
