House of the Dragon premiere draws roughly 10 million viewers

According to Warner Bros. Discovery, House of the Dragon drew 9.99 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max after premiering with one episode on Sunday. This figure includes both linear airings and HBO Max streams on premiere night.

HBO claims that House of the Dragon drew the largest audience in the channel's history, including content that debuted before the streaming era, as well as HBO shows that have since premiered on defunct digital platforms HBO Now and HBO Go, as well as their successor HBO Max. Since its conclusion in 2019, Game of Thrones has remained HBO's biggest hit of all time, and as its prequel series, House of the Dragon is arguably the project that has received the most marketing and fanfare from the network since.

As a result, the series premiere of Heirs of the Dragons outperformed the series premiere of Game of Thrones, which drew 4.2 million viewers in 2011. And, while it may be unfair to compare House of the Dragon to the heights that its predecessor eventually achieved—Game of Thrones premiered to a record-breaking 17.9 million viewers with the premiere of its eighth and final season—there is another, more recent HBO series that deserves to be mentioned.

Heirs of the Dragons by Sam Levinson is not only HBO's biggest show of 2022 so far; it also became the network's second-most-watched series of all time after Game of Thrones in February, thanks to the second season's run. While viewership increased from the start to the end of the season — a rare and impressive feat — its premiere episode was watched by 2.4 million people, 76% fewer than House of the Dragon.

The film is based on George Martin's 2018 novel Fire & Blood. The story of House Targaryen is told in this series, which is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D'Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans are among the cast members. Martin co-created the show with Ryan Condal, who also serves as co-showrunner alongside director Miguel Sapochnik. Along with Sara Hess, Jocelyn Diaz, Vince Gerardis, and Ron Schmidt, Martin, Condal, and Sapochnik serve as executive producers.

"It was wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return to Westeros with us last night," said Casey Bloys, HBO and HBO Max's chief content officer. 

Further, he added, "House of the Dragon has an incredibly talented cast and crew who poured their hearts and souls into the production, and we're overjoyed with the positive response from viewers. We are excited to tell audiences what else George, Ryan, and Miguel have in store for them this season."