‘Dragon House’ draws nearly 10 million viewers, making it HBO’s biggest premiere ever – NBC10 Philadelphia

• The first episode of Dragon House was watched by 9.986 million viewers on linear and HBO Max on Sunday night. This is the largest audience for a new original series in HBO history.
• The 10-episode weekly series tells the story of the Targaryen Civil War, which took place roughly 200 years before the events depicted in Game of Thrones.
• The stakes are high for a prequel series. It arrives as newly minted CEO David Zaslau looks for fat to trim. Cost-cutting measures have become the status quo at the newly merged company, including layoffs and the removal of content from HBO Max.

HBO’s House of the Dragon had some pretty big shoes to fill, following in the footsteps of the mega-hit Game of Thrones. It looks like fans of the high fantasy series were intrigued enough to settle in to watch the first episode of the series, resulting in the biggest HBO series premiere in its history.

on monday Warner Bros. Discovery revealed that 9.986 million viewers across linear and HBO Max tuned in to watch the first episode of the prequel series on Sunday night. This is the largest audience for a new original series in HBO history, the company said.

The company said the Sunday night audience for HBO series is typically between 20% and 40% of the show’s total audience.

“It was great to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return to Westeros with us last night,” said Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer, HBO and HBO Max.

House of the Dragon tells the story of the Targaryen Civil War, which took place about 200 years before the events described in Game of Thrones. It is based on the novel Fire and Blood by George RR Martin. Unlike Martin’s other books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, this one has an omniscient narrator documenting stories based on a collection of events. In some cases, these stories contradict each other and there are several versions of events.

The stakes are high for “Dragon House,” out on HBO and HBO Max, as newly minted CEO David Zaslav looks for some fat to trim. Cost-cutting measures have become the status quo at the newly merged company, including layoffs and the removal of content from HBO Max.

Since Warner Bros. While Discovery is looking to save money, it is also looking to consolidate its streaming services, which will be expensive and time-consuming.

House of the Dragon, only the second entry in the Game of Thrones franchise, has a lot to prove and a lot to live up to. The final season of Game of Thrones left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans, as the showrunners wrote out of context in material created by author Martin, who has yet to finish the story in his books.

House of the Dragon holds an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 413 reviews as of Monday afternoon. By comparison, the first season of Game of Thrones, which aired in 2011, had a 90% Fresh rating. In fact every season except the final season had a score above 90%. The eighth season received a rating of 55%.

Analysts, investors and, most importantly, executives of Warner Bros. Discovery will be keeping a close eye on the viewing figures for Dragon House to see if it can maintain the momentum throughout the 10-episode run.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. Rotten Tomatoes is owned by NBCUniversal.