“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” beats “The House of the Dragon” in its first public confrontation

We have been patient and finally we have the results of the first round of the showdown of the year in the hearings. On Friday, September 2, the first two chapters of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” premiered on Amazon Prime Video. It’s the most expensive series in history, a very fat bet from Amazon. A few days earlier, on August 22, the resurrection of the ‘Game of Thrones’ franchise arrived on HBO Max with ‘The House of the Dragon’, an important bet also for the Warner Bros. Discovery platform. Although they are two different series, even in the way they are broadcast (“The House of the Dragon” debuts in the US on HBO’s linear channel before moving on to streaming), and they approach the fantasy genre in different ways, that coincide over time is a sufficient excuse to make comparisons.

Since none of the platforms offer specific audience data, we had to wait for Nielsen to publish their streaming data analysis for the week of August 28 to September 5, the first week that both series coincided. It’s not an entirely fair comparison because Nielsen can only count viewers in the US, so we can’t know the world data, only the streaming platforms, so anyone who saw “The Dragon’s House” when it aired on HBO is out of the question. . , and reproductions on televisions onlyalso omitting tablets, smartphones and other devices.

Despite this, “The Rings of Power” can take off without a problem. The series that takes us back to Middle-earth debuted in the charts in the first position with the incredible 1,253 million minutes accumulated between its first two episodes. ‘The Dragon’s House’ occupies the fifth position on the chart with 781 million minutes accumulated between the three chapters that were already available on HBO Max. It is surpassed by Netflix’s “Time for Me” (927 million minutes), “Navy : Criminal Investigation “(812 million minutes) and” Game of Thrones “(792 million minutes). Important: “The Lord of the Rings” accumulated those minutes from Friday to Sunday, while the first two chapters of “The House of the Dragon” were available throughout the week (the third was only a few hours on Sunday, yes).

The audience of “The Rings of Power”

For Amazon, it’s also a milestone because it’s the first series to debut at # 1 since Nielsen began measuring streaming audiences in 2020. The main audience was made up of 55% men and 31% adults between the ages of 35 and 49. Keep in mind, however, that this was the premiere of the series, so interest was high and many would have seen the chapters to try it out. We’ll see how it held up the following week when Nielsen releases its next weekly review.

‘The House of the Dragon’ launches new episodes in Spain at dawn on Monday on HBO Max e it will end its first season on 24 October. For its part, Amazon Prime Video premieres a new episode of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” every Friday and will close its first season on October 14.