House Of The Dragon Is Averaging 29M Viewers Per Episode, Here's How That Compares To Game Of Thrones

HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, is putting up big viewership numbers. According to Variety, the show is now averaging 29 million viewers per episode in the US. This counts viewership across cable TV, HBO Max, and all other places where people can watch HBO content.

Forbes reported that the original Game of Thrones picked up an average of 9.3 million viewers per episode in 2011 for its debut season. Importantly, though, that was a decade ago when there was no HBO Max. George R.R. Martin had published some of the A Song of Ice and Fire books, but the fantasy series overall was new to many and didn't have the cultural significance that is has now thanks to the Game of Thrones show.

Game of Thrones ended its run with an average of 44 million viewers per episode in its eighth and final season in 2019. The spinoff series, House of the Dragon, was never expected to perform as well as the main show. This is something that series star Matt Smith previously spoke about.

Smith, who plays Daemon Targaryen on House of the Dragon, said Game of Thrones had a "cultural footprint" and became a "phenomenon." He went on to say it would be "impossible to replicate or recreate" that.

"All we can do is focus on the show that we are trying to make, and while it belongs in the same world, hopefully, it will evolve and become its own thing," Smith said. "This focuses on a tighter group of people, and Thrones was immediately much broader in story terms. This feels like more of a family drama. It's never gonna re-create the levels of success that Thrones had because it can't--it was a totally original moment. But we've tried to create something that feels entertaining in a similar way, but will hopefully take on a different identity."

House of the Dragon premiered on August 21 and is now at the midway point in its first season. The next episode, which airs on September 25, will feature a 10-year time jump, with new actors coming in to play Rhaenyra and Alicent.

HBO has ordered a second season of House of the Dragon, but we don't know yet when it will air.

The show is now competing with another high-profile fantasy series, Amazon Studios' The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which picked up 25 million viewers for its first episodes.