‘House Of the Dragon’ Becomes HBO’s Biggest Debut Ever

HBO has been developing Game of Thrones spinoffs since before the main series concluded. And House of the Dragon is the first to reach the small screen. There was great speculation about whether the prequel series would have the same impact as its predecessor.

Game of Thrones was once the most popular television show in the world. But its last season received mostly poor reviews. As a result, it was unclear whether this would turn off some viewers of House of the Dragon. Based on the early statistics, it hasn’t in the slightest.

‘House of the Dragon’ makes the biggest HBO debut

According to HBO, House of the Dragon‘s Sunday night premiere attracted 9.986 million viewers across linear and streaming platforms. That’s about 8 million more viewers than it attracted for its 2011 debut of Game of Thrones (2.22 million viewers). House of the Dragon still managed to dominate its debut despite a number of reported outages and problems for some viewers using particular apps.

Before and during its premiere, the show dominated social media platforms and received positive word-of-mouth and reviews. Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer at HBO & HBO Max, in response to the network’s historic launch, said:

It was wonderful to see millions of ‘Game of Thrones’ fans return with us to Westeros last night. ‘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, Ryan, and Miguel have in store for them this season.

Only three years have passed since Game of Thrones ruled the cable and streaming airwaves. And House of the Dragon has already shown that the brand is still going strong. There is still a lot of love for the rest of the universe, which Game of Thrones managed to capture the zeitgeist throughout its eight-season run, even though many fans were disappointed by the series finale.

If House of the Dragon manages to maintain this level of viewership throughout the first season, it will likely break more HBO records and spur the production of more Game of Thrones spinoffs to maintain the momentum.