House of the Dragon returned to solid viewership over the weekend, but it still represents quite a dip for the Game of Thrones prequel.
Per numbers from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Nielsen (via Variety), House of the Dragon attracted 7.8 million viewers when Season 2 premiered on HBO and Max on Sunday night. To be clear, those numbers are far from shabby, but it marks a 22% drop from Season 1's opener back in 2022, which marked the biggest premiere in HBO's history with nearly 10 million viewers.
What's the reason for the drop? Well, for one, it was Father's Day, and according to THR, Nielsen reported historically low TV viewership for that evening, affecting other major broadcasts like The Tony Awards. It's also simply been awhile since House of the Dragon Season 1 debuted nearly two years ago, and it faces some competition in shows like The Boys, which returned to Prime Video last week.
For its part, WBD also touted some positives in its reporting of the numbers, saying Sunday marked Max's biggest single day globally since its launch. It didn't, however, provide specific numbers for Max's viewership overall on Sunday, and it's also not a huge shock considering Max just became available to Europe in May.
It'll be interesting to see, too, how House of the Dragon Season 2 rises or falls as it continues. Season 1 hit its peak in its second episode, which premiered to 10.2 million viewers. Meanwhile, HBO isn't slowing down on its investment in the Game of Thrones universe, having just released the first image of another spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, earlier today as it began filming.
IGN gave the first episode of House of the Dragon Season 2 a 7/10, writing, "We may look back on 'A Son for a Son' as effective groundwork, but it’s undeniably lacking in the kind of excitement that this series can offer at its best."
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
