House of the Dragon vs Rings of Power Ratings Are Out And We Have A Winner

House of the Dragon and Rings of Power are two highly successful fantasy series. Their ratings are out and it’s more complex than we thought!

By Pratyush Singh
November 16,2022
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House of the Dragon is HBO’s masterpiece of the Game of Thrones franchise, which took television by storm and finally stopped people from talking about Breaking Bad. On the other hand, Rings of Power belongs to the Lord of the Rings franchise, another fan favourite and extremely popular amongst viewers and fantasy enthusiasts.

Both series belong to a vast and respected fantasy genre, both of them launched their first season this year, and both are based on bestselling books. Too many parallels between the two; if that wasn’t enough, both House of the Dragon and Rings of Power aired simultaneously on different platforms. So yeah, it’s tough competition. Nevertheless, which series was streamed more by viewers? Can we even base the success of a series based on its ratings alone or are there other factors to consider? Let’s find out in this article!

 

Consider This About House of the Dragon First

A still from HBO's House of the Dragon
A still from HBO’s House of the Dragon

House of the Dragon, unlike Rings of Power, was not restricted to only one platform. Also, the ratings that we will discuss are based on how many viewers streamed the series online and do not take into account the numerous people who watch it directly on HBO. Even though the majority of the viewers this year streamed HOTD on HBO Max, many Americans still choose to watch their content on direct television instead of through OTT platforms like HBO Max or Disney + (as is used in many regions).

The ratings we are taking into consideration are ‘Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings,’ a universally accepted benchmark for statistical data collection of rating digital mainstream content. Neilsen only takes into account the people who streamed House of the Dragon online and disregards the people watching it the traditional way; that is on a TV.

 

House of the Dragon vs Rings of Power: Who Won The Rating Battle?

We could not be sure whether Rhaenyra Targaryen will win the battle against The Greens in HoTD or if Galadriel would win against Adar in RoP. However, we can assure ourselves that as long as the ratings based on streaming go, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power is the clear winner of this battle. Take a look at the official charts by Neilsen:

House of the Dragon vs Rings of Power Neilson Rating Chart
House of the Dragon vs Rings of Power Neilson Rating Chart

We see that Lord of the Rings fans were very hyper about Rings of Power when it initially launched, unlike Game of Thrones fans, as House of the Dragon had very poor viewership for its premiere episode. Rings of Power started losing viewers from the third episode but quickly regained from the sixth. The overall streaming numbers tell us clearly that Rings of Power performed well in streaming. As Amazon Prime Video was the sole option for viewers to watch Rings of Power, nobody had a choice between platforms. This resulted in Rings of Power pulling all of their viewers on Amazon Prime only.

On the contrary, House of the Dragon’s viewers were divided between HBO, HBO Max and Disney + platforms. While the statistics show that Amazon’s The Rings of Power prevailed in streaming figures in all except one week. Moreover, the statistics for House of the Dragon are currently inadequate because Nielsen has yet to issue figures for the last two weeks of House of the Dragon Season 1 audience.

Verdict: Who Won After All?

House of the Dragon and Rings of Power Poster
House of the Dragon and Rings of Power Poster

It is evident that Rings of Power was streamed more than House of the Dragon, however, House of the Dragon may have a much higher viewership than Rings of Power. This is for one simple reason: 40% of individuals who saw House of the Dragon also saw The Rings of Power, so the audiences overlap. Also, when you look at the Neilsen rating numbers as well, you see after the fourth episode onward, House of the Dragon matched the game of Rings of Power, as the difference between the views is similar. And if you take the original HBO viewers into account, House of the Dragon will easily surpass Rings of Power. Now that the first season of both series is over, only the later seasons will tell how HoTD and RoP perform in the long run.