Following House of the Dragon's hugely successful premiere and strong ratings during its first two weeks, HBO recently dropped the first episode of the show online.
Titled "The Heirs of the Dragon," the entire episode was made available for free on YouTube. Taking place over 200 years prior to the events of the original series, the prequel brings fans back to Westeros and into the lives of the Targaryens. The show became the most-watched television premiere in the history of HBO, coming in at 9.986 million viewers across traditional cable and HBO Max platforms.
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The release of the first episode came on the same day as Prime Video's long-awaited release of fellow fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The show has proven to be a show among critics, who praise the series for its massive scale and attention to detail. The Rings of Power currently holds a critic score of 84 percent on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, while the audience score sits at just 37 percent at the time of writing. This appears to be the result of what many believe to be review-bombing.
In response to House of the Dragon's strong opening, Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer at HBO and HBO Max said, "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. We look forward to sharing with audiences what else George, Ryan, and Miguel have in store for them this season."
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Following the success of director Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, the fantasy genre was brought into the mainstream thanks in large part to HBO's Game of Thrones, which became a cultural phenomenon. House of the Dragon is set 200 years prior to the events of the show and explores the Targaryen dynasty before its fall and expulsion from Westeros. The Rings of Power, meanwhile, explores the period in Middle-Earth's history known as the Second Age, which saw the rise of Sauron and his Ringwraiths, as well as the creation of the One Ring.
House of the Dragon airs new episodes every Sunday at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max.
Source: YouTube, via AV Club