‘Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Becomes Amazon’s Most-Watched Premiere Ever
Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy is set thousands of years before its predecessor and is based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. The Rings of Power is no less epic than LOTR. It cast over 23 series regulars and budgeted over $465 million for season one.
Despite the massive number of viewers who have already watched the first two episodes, the show has garnered some criticism. The show has become yet another tragic victim of review bombing. It recorded a 37% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, and Amazon temporarily suspended Rings of Power reviews.
The site has been flooded with bad-faith reviews, with many especially criticizing the show’s casting of performers of color playing the inhabitants of Middle-Earth.
The Rings of Power premiere breaks records
Despite the bad reviews, the show is a success, as evidenced by the launch numbers on Amazon. According to Variety, the epic Lord of the Rings prequel was seen by 25 million people worldwide in the first 24 hours of its release.
Amazon announced the news in a press release, which was quickly followed by a tweet from the series’ official Twitter account. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, according to Amazon, broke every record previously set on the streaming service by making its debut in “more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.”
It’s not hard to think that HBO’s The House of the Dragon played a role in Amazon breaking their customary confidentiality agreement regarding their audience figures. The Rings of Power has frequently been contrasted with another well-known prelude to a fantasy series that dominates popular culture.
When HBO does something like offering the House of the Dragon series premiere on YouTube for free on the same day as Amazon’s launches, it’s simple to understand why. Another factor that might have stoked tension between the two shows was the closeness of their release dates and HBO’s assertion that an outstanding 10 million viewers saw the premiere of the Game of Thrones prequel.
The competition appears to have prompted Amazon to break its silence in order to demonstrate that House of the Dragon has not yet won the fantasy streaming battles. While Amazon does not disclose the measures they use to determine how much of an episode must be seen to qualify as a view, 25 million is a significant number. The Rings of Power has already been renewed for a second season, so there’s still time for those numbers to soar much higher.
