House of the Dragon isn’t done pulling in audiences yet, and that might just be until its finale.
Episode 2 of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel drew 10.2 million viewers across all platforms on Sunday night, the network announced Monday. That means there’s a 2% increase over the August 21st premiere, which alone made history as the biggest debut on HBO.
As intriguing as the numbers of the premiere were, they wondered if House of the Dragon would have its momentum until the finale. At this point, the answer is probably yes, to say the least.
Also on Monday, HBO announced that its first episode, “The Heirs of the Dragon,” surpassed 25 million viewers in the United States just one week after its release.
And unsurprisingly, the series is slated for a second season renewal.
In addition, House of the Dragon’s raucous debut seems to boost viewership over its predecessor: Game of Thrones was up 30% last week. Currently in its eighth consecutive week of growth, the original series peaked at No. 2 on HBO Max last week.
House of the Dragon is far from reaching Game of Thrones rating levels at its peak. The original series continually built its audience through word of mouth and critical reviews. So much so that when HBO released the show’s final season in 2019, the final episode attracted 19.3 million viewers.
Read also: House of the Dragon’s Emily Carey Discusses Her Character
House of the Dragon Background
Inspired by George R.R. Martin’s 2018 book Fire and Blood, House of the Dragon happens 200 years prior to Thrones and chronicles the occurrences of the Dance of the Dragons, a civil war that erupted between the Targaryens.
The star-studded cast includes Milly Alcock, Paddy Considine, Emily Carey, Matt Smith, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, Emma D’Arcy, and Olivia Cooke.
Emily Carey has recently revealed in an interview that she asked co-producer Miguel Sapochnik about the inclusion of a detail that was left out in the first episode of the series: Princess Rhaenyra’s best friend Alicent Hightower, played by Carey, was the woman her father, Viserys, married after her mother, Queen Aemma, died.
Read also: House of the Dragon Producer Says the Show Portrays No Sexual Violence
