House of the Dragon, HBO’s much-anticipated Game of Thrones spinoff, premiered on Sunday and pulled in record numbers. In fact, so many people tuned in that House of Dragon has become HBO’s biggest premiere ever, with nearly 10 million viewers.
According to Warner Bros. Discovery, House of the Dragon had 9.99 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max. “It was wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return with us to Westeros last night,” HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys said. “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. We look forward to sharing with audiences what else George [R.R. Martin], Ryan [Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik] have in store for them this season.” Although it’s not exactly fair to compare them, Game of Thrones brought in 4.2 million viewers when it premiered back in 2011. The series finale was the most-watched episode, with 19.3 million viewers across all platforms. House of the Dragon has a ways to go before it reaches those numbers, but its premiere got things off to a fantastic start. Will it be able to keep the momentum going? Time will tell.
House of the Dragon is set hundreds of years before the original series. It is based upon George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, a Targaryen history book which chronicles the history of House Targaryen, starting off with “Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and [going on] to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold the throne, all the way up to the civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons, that nearly tore their dynasty apart.”
You can check out a review of the House of the Dragon premiere from our own Alex Maidy right here. What did you think of the Game of Thrones spinoff?