The ‘Lord of the Rings’ series outdraws the HBO Max-only tally for ‘House of the Dragon’ in the United States.
Courtesy of BEN ROTHSTEIN/PRIME VIDEO/Amazon Studios
The big-budget The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power had a big opening weekend on Nielsen’s SVOD charts, outdrawing House of the Dragon among streaming users. It was not, however, the biggest opening ever for Amazon’s Prime Video in terms of total viewing time.
The Rings of Power captured 1.25 billion minutes of viewing time following its Sept. 1 premiere in the U.S., the only streaming title to top a billion minutes for the week. HBO’s House of the Dragon, meanwhile, ticked up week-to-week with 781 million minutes on HBO Max (the latter’s total doesn’t include viewing on HBO’s linear channels, which accounts for a significant portion of its overall audience).
While the debut for Rings is among Prime Video’s best openings ever — and the first series on the platform to capture the No. 1 overall ranking on the Nielsen chart — it’s not the best. That honor still belongs to Reacher, which had 1.84 billion minutes of viewing time for its opening weekend in early February.
One key difference: Reacher’s full, eight-episode season debuted at once, giving Prime Video users about six and a half hours’ worth of show to watch. The Rings of Power premiered with only two episodes, totaling two hours and 12 minutes of running time. That works out to an average of about 9.5 million viewers for the two episodes (dividing viewing minutes by running time) — more than twice that of Reacher‘s opening frame (4.7 million).
A closer comparison among Prime Video series is another fantasy show, The Wheel of Time. It premiered with three episodes in November 2021 and amassed 1.16 billion minutes of viewing in its first weekend. Those three episodes had a combined running time of 169 minutes, which equates to an average of about 6.6 million viewers.
As for House of the Dragon, its 781 million minutes — encompassing a week’s worth of viewing for the first two episodes and a few hours for episode three — is up marginally from 741 million the previous week. Parent show Game of Thrones remained high on the acquired series rankings as well, with 792 million minutes.
Nielsen “reach” figures — a measure of people who watched at least six minutes of a given program — for House of the Dragon and The Rings of Power are somewhat similar. The Rings of Power holds an edge among streaming viewers only, with 12.6 million people in the U.S. checking out the series over its first four days, compared to 10.6 million for House of the Dragon. Adding in viewing of the latter on HBO’s main cable channel, however, brings the total for House of the Dragon to 14.5 million; on-demand viewers and those who watch on HBO’s multiplex channels aren’t counted.
HBO says that thus far, House of the Dragon is averaging 29 million cross-platform viewers per episode since its Aug. 21 premiere — ahead of the totals for the first six seasons of Game of Thrones.
Elsewhere on the streaming chart, Netflix’s limited series Devil in Ohio debuted in second place among originals with 716 million minutes of viewing over eight episodes. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (472 million minutes) improved by 21 percent week-to-week with the release of its third episode Sept. 1.
Nielsen’s streaming ratings cover viewing on TV sets only and don’t include minutes watched on computers or mobile devices. The ratings only measure U.S. audiences, not those in other countries, and currently only include Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix and Prime Video.
Nielsen’s top streaming series for Aug. 29-Sept. 1 are below.
Original Series
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime Video), 1.25 billion minutes viewed
2. Devil in Ohio (Netflix), 716 million
3. Stranger Things (Netflix), 667 million
4. Echoes (Netflix), 627 million
5. I Am a Killer (Netflix), 558 million
6. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney+), 472 million
7. The Sandman (Netflix), 432 million
8. Virgin River (Netflix), 428 million
9. Partner Track (Netflix), 413 million
10. Untold (Netflix), 301 million
Acquired Series
1. NCIS (Netflix), 812 million minutes
2. Game of Thrones (HBO Max), 792 million
3. House of the Dragon (HBO Max), 781 million
4. Cocomelon (Netflix), 693 million
5. Grey’s Anatomy (Netflix), 674 million
6. Bluey (Disney+), 581 million
7. The Big Bang Theory (HBO Max), 571 million
8. Friends (HBO Max), 480 million
9. Breaking Bad (Netflix), 422 million
10. The Simpsons (Disney+), 397 million
