‘Rings of Power’ Debuts at №1 on Streaming Chart
The ‘Lord of the Rings’ series outdraws HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ in the United States.
by Rick Porter, September 29, 2022
The big-budget The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power had a big opening weekend on Nielsen’s SVOD charts, outdrawing House of the Dragon among streaming users. It was not, however, the biggest opening ever for Amazon’s Prime Video in terms of total viewing time.
The Rings of Power captured 1.25 billion minutes of viewing time following its Sept. 1 premiere in the U.S., the only streaming title to top a billion minutes for the week. HBO’s House of the Dragon, meanwhile, ticked up week to week with 781 million minutes on HBO Max (the latter’s total doesn’t include viewing on HBO’s linear channels, which accounts for a significant portion of its overall audience).
While the debut for Rings is among Prime Video’s best openings ever — and the first series on the platform to capture the №1 overall ranking on the Nielsen chart — it’s not the best. That honor still belongs to Reacher, which had 1.84 billion minutes of viewing time for its opening weekend in early February.
One key difference: Reacher’s full, eight-episode season debuted at once, giving Prime Video users about 6 1/2 hours’ worth of show to watch. The Rings of Power premiered with only two episodes, totaling two hours and 12 minutes of running time.
