'House Of The Dragon' Draws In Huge Audience For First Season Finale

Sunday night was a big night for HBO and the "Game of Thrones" prequel television series, "House of the Dragon." Per The Hollywood Reporter,  the Sunday (Oct. 23) HBO broadcast for the dark fantasy series brought in 9.3 million viewers for its tenth episode.

The first season finale for the smash-hit series drew bigger numbers than all but two seasons of "Game of Thrones" in total viewers overall.

While the finale did not draw as high as the first couple of episodes this season, it's still the biggest audience for an HBO season finale or series finale since "Game of Thrones" ended its run back in May 2019. Episode 8.6 of the show, "The Iron Throne," was viewed by 13.61 million viewers for its initial live HBO broadcast.

THR reports that HBO has said the show has averaged 29 million viewers per episode, which is higher than all but the last two seasons of the preceding "Game of Thrones" TV series. The series has drawn about 9-9.5 million viewers throughout its first season of 10 episodes. That is for the first night, all-platform audience total.

THR notes that the show averaged 1.87 million viewers for its first Sunday night showing on HBO. That comes out to about 20% of the 9.3 million viewer total. HBO Max and replay viewings reportedly account for the rest of the audience.

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This week's finale featured a highly anticipated confrontation between princes Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), an event that sparks the Targaryen Civil War, which is depicted in George R.R. Martin's book "Fire & Blood."

"House of the Dragon" has already been renewed for a second season, with HBO announcing the new season shortly after the series premiere becoming a ratings bonanza. The first season had Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik as co-showrunners. Sapochnik exited the show following the first season, and Condal is reportedly set to take on solo showrunning duties for Season 2.

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The show is also a big hit on streaming for HBO Max. As reported by The Blast, the series premiere drew an impressive 327 million minutes of viewing time just a few hours after it launched at 9 PM ET on August 21. With all those accolades in mind, it's no surprise that HBO and WarnerMedia would be quick to renew the series.

Meanwhile, THR also reports Alan Taylor ("Thor: The Dark World," "Terminator Genisys") will be returning to "Game of Thrones" for the show's second season as an executive producer and a director of several upcoming episodes.

Season 2 of "House of the Dragon" does not yet have an official launch date. However, fans can catch up and watch the entire season on HBO Max.

Other spinoffs of "Game of Thrones" spinoffs besides "House of the Dragon" are also in the works. THR reported earlier this year that HBO is developing a sequel spinoff series for Jon Snow that would see the continuing journey of the character after the events of the "GoT" series finale.

Other "GoT" spinoffs currently in the works include "Dunk and Egg" with showrunner Steve Conrad.