‘Lord of the Rings’ beats out ‘House of the Dragon’ in Nielsen streaming

Two of the most hyped TV series right now are having their first head-to-head viewership battle. Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ and HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ are both on Nielsen’s streaming rankings.

Covering the week from Aug.29- Sept.4 of Nielsen’s rankings, ‘The Rings of Power’ hits the number one spot with 1.3 billion minutes viewed. While ‘House of the Dragon’ is behind at the number five spot with 781 million minutes. Its percentage was 61% less than its competitor.

However, there are factors to look at these juggernauts. Nielsen streaming only records viewing through a cable network, the HBO Max. Also, HBO has confirmed that its Game of Thrones prequel totals an average of 29 million viewers on all platforms.

In its first week on Nielsen's list, LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER trounced HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, giving Prime Video its first ever #1 for an "opening weekend." In addition, GAME OF THRONES actually saw more viewing minutes than HotD, too: pic.twitter.com/u6nrVXeDBF

— Alex Zalben (@azalben) September 29, 2022

It’s also important to note that Nielsen only tracks US viewing on TV screens. It excludes other devices and countries. Another factor is the series’ scheduled times. ‘The Lord of the Rings’ launched with two episodes at 9 p.m. ET on Sept.1. Which is safe to say that they are already on-air for the last three days plus another few hours on Nielsen’s viewing time.

In contrast, ‘House of the Dragon’ debuted its first episode at 9 p.m. ET on Aug.21, its second episode on Aug.28, and its third on Sept.4. Also, episode 3 aired a few hours before Nielsen finalized its weekly count. Moreover, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is only exclusive via streaming, while ‘House of the Dragon’ has cable views. And, Nielsen streaming doesn’t track cable viewerships.

Still, ‘House of the Dragon’ had the edge as its first two episodes are already available for viewing throughout the week. Also, the short availability time for Episode 3 shouldn’t be set aside. To clarify, episode 1 debuted at the end of Nielsen’s Aug.15-21 schedule. 

Also charting higher than “House of the Dragon” this week was its predecessor. #GameofThrones took the No. 3 position for the second week in a row with 792 million minutes of streaming viewing thanks to fans rewatching the series.
Get the details here: https://t.co/Te0Mlx0Ikx

— Variety (@Variety) September 29, 2022

In short, it didn’t make the chart, but it still closed at 327 million minutes of viewing in just the first hours on HBO Max. In conclusion, ‘The Rings of Power’ still beats ‘House of the Dragon.’ Especially considering that it doesn’t have any previous series.

Looking at other Nielsen records, the battle between these highly-budgeted fantasy series is too close. Furthermore, Amazon has reported that its series has a total of 25 million viewers worldwide on its first day. It is the only record before Nielsen’s streaming. Amazon has fully invested in the series, the streaming platform’s most expensive TV series.