Ratings: House of the Dragon Dips After 20-Month Break, But Fuels Max’s Biggest Day Ever

The lonnnnnng-awaited Season 2 premiere of House of the Dragon delivered 7.8 million cross platform viewers in the U.S. on Sunday night, marking a 16% decline from the Game of Thrones prequel’s freshman finale, which was released some 20 months ago, in October of the year 2022.

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That Season 1 finale drew 9.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched HBO finale since Game of Thrones concluded its eighth and final season with 19.8 million viewers in 2019.

House of the Dragon ‘s Season 2 premiere audience was similarly down 22% from the the fantasy saga’s August 2022 debut, which amassed 10 million cross platform viewers (aka the largest audience for any new series in HBO’s history).

That said, HBO — though without proving any specific data points — claims that House of the Dragon fueled “return record-breaking weekend viewership numbers on Max,” as people clearly caught up on Season 1, and on Sunday led the streaming platform to “its largest single-day audience to date.”

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TVLine readers gave Sunday’s Season 2 premiere an average grade of “A-“ ; read Kim Roots’ recap plus post mortem interviews about changes to the “Blood & Cheese” murder , Alicent and Ser Criston’s bedroom antics , and the “sew” cool new opening credits .

Want scoop on House of the Dragon Season 2, or for any other TV show ? Email InsideLine@tvline.com , and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

House of the Dragon's Matthew Needham on What Larys Knows (and the Surprising Way He Feels) About Alicent and Ser Criston's Affair