Variety: ‘House of the Dragon’ Finale Hits Season 2 Viewership High With Nearly 9 Million Viewers, But Down From Season 1 Ender

Story from Variety:

“House of the Dragon” hit a Season 2 high in viewership with Sunday’s finale, which drew 8.9 million multiplatform viewers across HBO and Max, per Warner Bros. Discovery.

That’s up 14% from the Season 2 premiere night, which garnered 7.8 million viewers. However, it is down from the audience size for the first season finale of “House of the Dragon” in 2022.

After premiering with 10 million viewers in June 2022, “House of the Dragon” Season 1 hit its peak with Episode 2, reaching 10.2 million. Exact data was not made available for Episodes 3-9, but Episode 10 closed the season with 9.3 million viewers.

Warner Bros. Discovery attributed the season opener declines to a drop in linear viewing, as fewer viewers now watch on HBO’s cable channel. But on the flip side, the conglom reports that Sunday’s “House of the Dragon” finale has now led to the biggest streaming day ever for Max, both in the U.S. and across the globe.

Overall, according to Warner Bros. Discovery, “House of the Dragon” Season 2 is averaging nearly 25 million cross platform viewers. It’s unknown whether a leak of several scenes from the Season 2 finale on TikTok may have impacted viewership — but it’s a bit apples-to-apples, as two years ago the Season 1 finale also experienced an online leak as well.

“House of the Dragon” Season 2 will be eligible for next year’s 2025 Emmys. The show’s Season 1 garned eight Emmy nods, including outstanding drama series, and won one for fantasy/sci-fi costumes.

In a press conference earlier Monday, showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal revealed that the “Game of Thrones” prequel will include two more seasons, and will conclude with Season 4. Condal also confirmed that the third season is currently being written, they will be doing prep for it in the fall, with the plan to go into production in “earlyish 2025.”

The fantasy drama series is based on author George R.R. Martin’s book “Fire & Blood,” which details the history of House Targaryen. The returning cast includes Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, Ewan Mitchell as Aemond Targaryen, Eve Best as Rhaena Targaryen, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon, Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole and Tom Glynn-Carney as Aegon Targaryen.

New faces joining the series in Season 2 included Tom Taylor as Lord Cregan Stark, Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull, Jamie Kenna as Ser Alfred Broome, Kieran Bew as Hugh Hammer, Tom Bennett as Ulf and Vincent Regan as Ser Rickard Thorne.