‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Premiere Viewership Down From Season 1

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 1, “A Son for a Son.”]

All eyes are on Dragonstone and the Red Keep after the deadly House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere on June 16, and a lot of eyes were on the episode! But there were less viewers than there were for the series premiere in August 2022. The first installment of the new season was watched 22 percent less than the very first episode.

House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 1 garnered 7.8 million on premiere night, per The Hollywood Reporter. The Season 1 premiere, on the other hand, drew in 9.99 million viewers (across HBO and Max, with linear airings and streams) and was a record-setting night for the network. Warner Bros. Discovery says that the Season 2 premiere was still Max’s biggest streaming day ever.

While “A Son for a Son” drew in less viewers than its Season 1 counterpart, it was still a ratings success in comparison to other recent HBO releases. The White Lotus Season 2 had an average of 10.1 million viewers per episode, and Succession‘s final season had an average of 8.7 million each week. House of the Dragon‘s Season 2 getting 7.8 million viewers for its opener is a clear sign that there’s still excitement for the Game of Thrones spinoff after the two-year hiatus.

It will be interesting to see how each episode performs week to week and compare the ratings by the end of the season. Can it increase its overall viewership for Season 2 with two fewer episodes? If any show has a good chance at that, it’s a Game of Thrones series. In an extra sign of HBO’s confidence in the spinoff, House of the Dragon was renewed for Season 3 a few days before the Season 2 premiere.

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'House of the Dragon' Stars on Choosing Sides in Targaryen Civil War in Season 2

Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and tells the story of House Targaryen, which couldn’t be more divided after the events of Season 1 Episodes 9 and 10, as well as the June 16 Season 2 premiere.

Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) drew first blood in 2022’s season finale, launching the civil war within the ruling house of Westeros known in the book as the Dance of the Dragons. In the Season 2 premiere, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) demanded justice for her son, Lucerys’ (Elliot Grihault), death.

“I want Aemond Targaryen,” she growled to her council. Daemon (Matt Smith) took matters into his own hands and secretly set off for King’s Landing, where he hired assassins to take out Aemond. The plan went sideways, leading to the murder of the gruesome death of an innocent from the Hightower side. This is an event from Fire & Blood known as “Blood and Cheese,” comparable to the Red Wedding not in the number of deaths but in the sheer horror of the murder.

House of the Dragon stars D’Arcy, Smith, Mitchell, Olivia Cooke, Fabien Frankel, Rhys Ifans, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Matthew Needham, Sonoya Mizuno, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, and Jefferson Hall. Additional cast for Season 2 includes Abubakar Salim, Gayle Rankin, Freddie Fox, Simon Russell Beale, Clinton Liberty, Jamie Kenna, Kieran Bew, Tom Bennett, Tom Taylor, and Vincent Regan.

The series is co-created and executive-produced by showrunner Ryan Condal. Martin serves as co-creator and executive producer.

House of the Dragon, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO, Streaming on Max