A great start to an epic adventure.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s two-episode premiere drew in 25 million global viewers in 24 hours, and it has officially become the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video.
Amazon shared the milestone in a press release, saying The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power broke all previous records after debuting “in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.”
“It is somehow fitting that Tolkien’s stories – among the most popular of all time, and what many consider to be the true origin of the fantasy genre – have led us to this proud moment,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said. “I am so grateful to the Tolkien Estate and our showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, executive producer Lindsey Weber, cast and crew – for their tireless collaborative efforts and boundless creative energy. And it is the tens of millions of fans watching – clearly as passionate about Middle-earth as we are – who is our true measure of success.”
While we don’t have exact details of how much of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s 25 million viewers actually watched as this doesn’t mean they sat through the entire two-episode premiere, it’s still an excellent sign for the series that has a reported budget of $465 million for its first season.
Once again, it’s hard to compare rings to dragons as we don’t have all the details. Still, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s viewership was a bit more than the premiere of the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon’s 9.986 million people, which was also the largest in HBO history.
In our review of the first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, we said that it “may take it a little while to hit its stride, but once it does, it immerses us in a gorgeous fantasy world with a great ensemble and several intriguing subplots.”
For more, check out our chat with the series’ producers on making the series accessible and the important role Galadriel has to play alongside every major player introduced in the premiere.
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