Ratings for the Season 2 finale of House of the Dragon prove the Game of Thrones prequel may just have wings after all. According to a report by Deadline, The Season 2 finale brought in 8.9 million viewers on Sunday night across HBO and its digital platforms, including Max. That’s a jump of 14% over the Season 2 premiere episode, which had 7.8 million viewers. However, even with the gains in viewership, the Season 2 finale ratings still trail the audience highs Season 1 achieved, with the first season finale bringing in over 9 million viewers. The highest audience numbers since the final episode of Game of Thrones aired in 2019.
According to the report, the audience size for House of the Dragon Season 2 was down 22% at the beginning of the season (compared to the first season), but has grown with each new episode, giving HBO hope that the series is building a viewership, and winning back Game of Thrones fans.
Overall, House of the Dragon has boasted strong acting and high production value, but is it a worthy successor to Game of Thrones? Casual viewers have struggled to keep up with the ever-expanding lore and backstories for the dozens of characters being introduced. Prior to the Season 2 premiere, HBO announced a surge in viewers streaming the first season, likely in an apparent attempt to “refresh” themselves on the characters and intricate plot.
What seems to have fueled the increase in viewers throughout Season 2, however, was a string of excellent episodes, featuring some fantastic battle scenes and dragon fights that rank among the best in the franchise. It created the type of buzz the series has been lacking, and was a nice change from the slower pace of early episodes. Many viewers called the dialogue-heavy character development early in Season 2 “boring,” but the strong second half led viewership up to about 25 million per episode to date.
How Have Fans Reacted to the House of the Dragon Season 2 Finale?
House of the Dragon has drummed up considerable buzz online in recent weeks, as a number of strong episodes drove fans to social media to discuss the show’s developments in a way not seen since Game of Thrones was at its peak. Viewers were left unsatisfied by a slow-paced finale, however, which featured the various factions of Westeros assembling for the start of the Battle of the Gullet, a major event in the book, but not the battle itself.Producers responded to fan reactions by saying the pivotal event is coming soon, but they wanted to focus on the character arcs which would come into play in future episodes. Still, fans had opinions.
There was the obvious overreaction on social media, particularly on X/Twitter, but the core sentiment echoed the disappointment of many, who described the episode as a “snoozefest.” Some fans had a thing or two to say about the underwhelming finale, which didn’t deliver the battle or resolution most expected. But it wasn’t all negative, with a flash-forward of sorts to Daenerys from the first season of Game of Thrones being a nice touch. You can check out some reactions to the finale below.
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Here there be dragons.
Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik serve as showrunners and executive producers of House of the Dragon, which is based on co-creator and executive producer George R.R. Martin’s novel Fire & Blood. The cast includes Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Fabien Frankel, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Ewan Mitchell, and Eve Best.
All episodes of
House of the Dragon
are now streaming on Max.