‘House of the Dragon’ Is Biggest Series Premiere Ever for HBO

House of the Dragon has finally landed on HBO Max over three years after the final episode of Game of Thrones premiered on the streamer. The prequel series, which debuted Sunday night, pulled in a massive 9.986 million viewers, making it the largest original series premiere in HBO history.

“It was wonderful to see millions of Game of Thrones fans return with us to Westeros last night. House of the Dragon features an incredibly talented cast and crew who poured their heart and soul into the production, and we’re ecstatic with viewers’ positive response,” said Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer, HBO & HBO Max in a press release provided to Decider. “We look forward to sharing with audiences what else George, Ryan, and Miguel have in store for them this season.”

According to HBO, the numbers, which include broadcast and HBO Max streams for Sunday night, will typically “represent just 20%-40% of the show’s total gross audience.” Today’s viewership numbers are pulled from the initial House of the Dragon broadcast and don’t include repeat airings or additional streaming from this week.

The House of the Dragon premiere even caused HBO Max to crash for some users, with about 3,000 reported outages on Sunday timed to the House of the Dragon release, per Downdetector.

By contrast, when Game of Thrones first premiered in 2011, it pulled in 2.22 million viewers the night of its very first episode, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It was a rather slow start for the series, which ended years later on HBO in 2019 with a finale episode that brought in 19.3 million viewers, 13.6 million of which watched live on HBO the night it aired (other viewers watched the finale as an encore or streamed it through HBO Go or HBO Now, HBO Max predecessors).

Other HBO Max originals like Euphoria have also pulled in viewership numbers in the high teens. The second season of Zendaya-led drama ended with a finale watched by 6.6 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max, as reported by Deadline in February.

In Season 2, Euphoria was a ratings hit for HBO, but still fell behind Game of Thrones as the network’s most-watched series. While Euphoria averaged 19.5 million viewers in its second season, it paled in comparison to Game of Thrones, which averaged 46 million viewers during its final season, per HBO numbers shared with Deadline.

House of the Dragon is set centuries before the events of Game of Thrones and follows the Targaryen family, ancestors of Game of Thrones‘ Daenerys Targaryen. The cast features Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Emma D’Arcy/Milly Alcock as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen and Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys Targaryen.

In her House of the Dragon review, Decider’s Meghan O’Keefe described the series as “a magical miracle” that “feels more Game of Thrones than even Game of Thrones.”

“The show is full of details that will delight hardcore fans and also expands on the mythology of Martin’s universe in huge ways. Tonally, House of the Dragon is more like Martin’s fantasy tomes than David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’s adaptation was,” she writes. “That’s partly because Martin himself co-created House of the Dragon and partly because HBO has thrown a massive budget into bringing the full scope of his world to life.”

House of the Dragon episode 1 is now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes premiere at 9/8c on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

UPDATED 8/23/22 AT 8:47 AM ET: An earlier version of this story reported that Euphoria Season 2 averaged 16.3 million viewers. It has since been updated to include the final average audience, which was 19.5 million viewers.