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.

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."

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.

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