HBO’s “House of the Dragon” closed its debut season on high note. During the October 17-23 viewing window, the series placed third on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 chart and scored 1.01 billion minutes viewed following the release of the season finale which aired on Oct. 23.
Because “House of the Dragon” airs on Sundays, only the finale’s first few hours of availability were included in this week’s figures. The series is likely to remain on the chart for another week as Nielsen continues to account for next-day streams.
Its main competition, Amazon Prime Video’s “The Rings of Power,” seems to be lacking in staying power. One week after Nielsen measured debut of its eighth and final episode, the “Lord of the Rings” prequel series has dropped off of the overall chart, instead taking fifth place when compared to streaming originals alone. This indicates that Nielsen’s measurements of the series throughout its run were generally representative of its core audience. In other words, the amount of people who waited until all episodes were available to begin binging “The Rings of Power” was not a large fraction.
Because the shows have different airing schedules and are in different formats, these comparisons aren’t exactly apples to apples. “House of the Dragon” had the benefit of a new episode bumping its viewership during this period, but is disadvantaged compared to “The Rings of Power” because an estimated one-third of its audience tuned in on HBO’s cable channel rather than streaming on HBO Max — making its performance this week especially impressive. Whether or not “House of the Dragon” remains on the chart past the release of its finale will be a more definitive marker of its cultural impact compared to “The Rings of Power.
Nielsen released additional data on both shows last week, giving some further insight into the audience contributing to the viewership on the two dramas. According to their analysis, at least 35% of “House of the Dragon” viewers were aged 18-34 while 42% of “The Rings of Power” audience were aged over 50. Also, 40% of “House of the Dragon” viewers also watched “The Rings of Power” and 35% of “The Rings Of Power” viewers also watched “House of the Dragon.”
Ryan Murphy continues to reign over the Top 10 chart with “The Watcher” despite “Monster” falling off the list. After being in third place in last week’s rankings, the show now occupies the fourth slot on the original programs chart with 599 million minutes viewed.
Created by Murphy and Ian Brennan, the mystery series starring Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale took the No. 1 slot for the second consecutive week with almost 2.6 billion minutes viewed.
“The School for Good and Evil” debuted on the chart at No. 2 with nearly 1.06 billion minutes viewed in its first six days of availability. Starring Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Michelle Yeoh and Laurence Fishburne, the film adaptation of Soman Chainani’s best-selling YA fantasy series of the same name follows best friends Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie) as they navigate an enchanted school for young heroes and villains — and find themselves on opposing sides of the battle between good and evil.
In fourth place is “The Sinner” with 935 million minutes viewed. The fourth and final season of the drama was added to Netflix in October – one year after the season aired on USA Network. “Love is Blind” also cracked the chart at No. 9 with 683 million minutes viewed following the release of Season 3. The reality dating series debuted episodes 1-4 on Oct. 19. With new episodes airing each Wednesday until the final “I do’s” and reunion episode on Nov. 9, it’s presumable the show will remain on the chart in the coming weeks.
The third season of “Unsolved Mysteries” pushed the show to tenth place on the list. Following its Oct. 18 debut on Netflix, the paranormal documentary series earned 672 million minutes watched in Season 3’s first six days of availability.
Elsewhere on the chart is “The Blacklist” (807 million), “NCIS” (796 million), “Gilmore Girls” (792 million), “Cocomelon” (757 million).
See Nielsen’s newest Top 10 streaming rankings below, with overall streaming titles for Oct. 17-23 first, followed by original streaming titles, acquired titles and then films.
