House of the Dragon is HBO’s masterpiece of the Game of Thrones franchise, which took television by storm and eventually kept people talking about Breaking Bad. On the other hand, Rings of Power belongs to the Lord of the Rings franchise, another fan favorite and hugely popular among viewers and fantasy lovers.
Both series belong to a broad and respected fantasy genre, both launched their first seasons this year, and both are based on bestselling books. Too many parallels between the two; if that wasn’t enough, House of the Dragon and Rings of Power were released simultaneously on different platforms. So yeah, it’s tough competition. Nevertheless, which series was the most listened to by viewers? Can we even base the success of a series solely on its ratings or are there other factors to consider? Let’s find out in this article!
Consider This About House of the Dragon First
A still from HBO’s House of the Dragon
House of the Dragon, unlike Rings of Power, was not limited to one platform. Additionally, the ratings we will discuss are based on the number of viewers who have streamed the series online and do not take into account the many people watching it directly on HBO. Even though the majority of viewers this year streamed HOTD on HBO Max, many Americans still choose to watch their content on Direct TV rather than OTT platforms like HBO Max or Disney+ (as is the case in many regions).
The ratings we consider are “Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings”, a universally accepted benchmark for collecting statistical data for ranking consumer digital content. Neilsen only considers people who have streamed House of the Dragon online and does not consider people who watch it the traditional way; it’s on a TV.
House of the Dragon vs Rings of Power: who won the odds battle?
We couldn’t be sure if Rhaenyra Targaryen will win the battle against the Greens in HoTD or if Galadriel will win against Adar in RoP. However, we can be sure that as far as streaming-based ratings go, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power is the clear winner in this battle. Take a look at the official Neilsen cards:
House of the Dragon vs. Rings of Power Neilson Scoring Chart
We see that Lord of the Rings fans were very excited about Rings of Power when it first launched, unlike Game of Thrones fans because House of the Dragon had very low viewership for its first episode. Rings of Power started losing viewers from the third episode but quickly regained from the sixth. The overall streaming numbers clearly tell us that Rings of Power performed well in streaming. As Amazon Prime Video was the only option for viewers to watch Rings of Power, no one had a choice between platforms. This allowed Rings of Power to attract all their viewers on Amazon Prime only.
On the contrary, House of the Dragon viewers were split between the HBO, HBO Max and Disney+ platforms. While stats show Amazon’s The Rings of Power prevailed in streaming numbers in all but one week. Additionally, House of the Dragon stats are currently insufficient as Nielsen has yet to release figures for the last two weeks of House of the Dragon Season 1 viewership.
Verdict: who won after all?
House of the Dragon and Rings of Power Poster
It is obvious that Rings of Power has been aired more than House of the Dragon, however, House of the Dragon may have a much higher viewership than Rings of Power. It’s for a simple reason: 40% of people who have seen House of the Dragon have also seen The Rings of Power, so the ratings overlap. Also, when you look at Neilsen’s rating numbers as well, you see that after the fourth episode, House of the Dragon matches the play of Rings of Power, because the difference between the views is similar. And if you factor in HBO original viewership, House of the Dragon will easily top Rings of Power. Now that the first season of both series is over, only later seasons will tell how HoTD and RoP fares in the long run.
