The new Game of Thrones series is a hit both here and in the US. So much so that the technology capitulated at the start of series production.
HBO can be satisfied: The series start of the Game of Thrones prequel “House of the Dragon” was a complete success. According to the cable broadcaster, almost 10 million viewers in the US saw the first episode on the first day of the HBO Max streaming service. This makes “House of the Dragon” the highest-grossing HBO series of all time at the start of the series, surpassing “Game of Thrones”. . The new HBO series also has the best series launch of the year so far when looking at streaming series in general.
However, the first episode of the prequel series only garnered about half the viewership compared to HBO’s season eight premiere of Game of Thrones. So it seems like the initial success of House of the Dragon was largely due to the advance praise that comes with its status as the first sequel to Game of Thrones. In addition, HBO probably also has to fight against the bland aftertaste of the finale of the previous series, which caused great displeasure among many viewers.
In Germany, too, the House of Dragons got off to an extremely successful start after a large-scale advertising campaign. As the media magazine Meedia reports, Sky attracted a total of almost three-quarters of a million viewers to the series start in the middle of the night (at 4 a.m., parallel to the start of the series in the USA) on linear television and on its streaming platform WOW. In linear television, this resulted in a nighttime market share of over 37 percent in the advertising-relevant target group – an extraordinary result for a pay-TV series, even at this hour of night sleep.
Too successful for the cloud
In the USA, the start of the series “House of the Dragon” was so successful that the many viewers caused the HBO Max app to collapse. The systems of the streaming competitor Amazon also had to deal with such an onslaught of Fire TV users who wanted to stream the HBO series on the Amazon device that the systems of the Internet giant went to their knees. Accordingly, many frustrated viewers vented their displeasure online last Sunday at not being able to see the series hyped by many websites as soon as it was released.
But given our impressions of the first episode of “House of the Dragon,” that might not have been the worst thing that could have happened to viewers. In our opinion, the prequel series gambled away much of the credit that “Game of Thrones” saved with its first installment, rather than starting with excitement and surprises of its own. It remains to be seen whether “House of the Dragon” can repeat the success of the hyped series start when further episodes are released.
GRR Martin vs JRR Tolkien
The new GoT series now has to prove itself after all the marketing and hype. Especially since a battle between the entertainment giants is looming in the coming weeks, because on September 2nd Amazon will be streaming its own elaborate fantasy epic with the Lord of the Rings prequel series “The Rings of Power”. -Arena. In classic Hollywood fashion, two fantasy series are pitted head-to-head that seem made to steal viewers (and paying subscribers) from each other.
It remains to be seen whether Amazon’s Fire TV technology will also collapse when its own fantasy blockbuster is launched, or whether the company has learned from the problems with the HBO series. Of course, many Internet observers did not go unnoticed that the technology stalled right at the start of the competitor’s large-scale series production. A rogue who thinks evil of it.
Either way we will hot online continue to report on both series. Reviews after further episodes of “House of the Dragon” and after the series start of “The Rings of Power” are planned.
(fab)
