A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Rotten Tomatoes Scores Officially Break 3 Records (& Only 1 Is Deserved)

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms sets itself apart from Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon in several ways, and that includes on Rotten Tomatoes. The latest in HBO’s expanding franchise gives us a much smaller Westeros story, following Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg, at the tourney at Ashford Meadow. With the exception of Game of Thrones Season 8, it typically goes that any show in this universe gets at least pretty good reviews, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms isn’t entirely an exception in that regard, but does have a few notable differences.

Personally, I loved A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, finding it a near-perfect adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas and a refreshing change of pace for the franchise. However, not everyone would agree with that assessment. At the time of writing, Season 1 of the show has a score of 95% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but just 64% with audiences. That gives it several records when it comes to the saga’s scores on the review platform, including:

• The highest-rated first season of any Westeros show with critics. Game of Thrones Season 1 and House of the Dragon Season 1 both have 90%.
• The lowest-rated first season of any Westeros show with audiences. Game of Thrones Season 1 has 96%, and HOTD Season 1 is a still-respectable 82%. Indeed, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ 64% is the second-lowest audience score in the franchise, behind only GOT Season 8 (30%).
• The 31-point difference between critics and audiences makes this the most divisive season of the entire franchise. This was previously held by GOT Season 8, which has a critics’ score of 55%, 25 points above its audience score.

Why Is A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms So Divisive?

This franchise, despite some misfires, still has a high bar and high expectations, and that has clearly worked both for and against A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The most curious thing about the differences in critic and audience scores is that they’re largely a response to the same things, only varying wildly in terms of actual opinion.

The show has been heavily praised by reviewers for being a breath of fresh air in Westeros. It has smaller stakes, a much lighter tone, but still plenty of heart and heroism, with a real depth to it as well. However, that’s also a point of contention among audiences, because it is absolutely not the kind of epic spectacle we’re used to seeing from this franchise, and that’s not going to be for everyone given its smaller, slower approach. I also noted in my own review that the overuse of toilet humor was one of the only drawbacks, and that’s something raised quite a bit on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Some of the negativity isn’t entirely surprising. There is still some lingering negativity within the overall saga: GOT Season 8 and HOTD Season 2 both suffered backlashes (albeit to varying degrees), and while the first six seasons of GOT all had audience scores over 90%, no season of any show has achieved that since then.

Meanwhile, any major franchise deviating from the norm, especially with such a different tone, can often be viewed more negatively, and it’s something Martin was aware of long before release. Back in 2025, he discussed how A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is different, calling it “softer… [and] more humorous” and saying that he hopes “the audience will be open to that kind of change.”

Alas, some fans aren’t, but it’s not all bad news for the show. Again, the reviews are great, it’s been topping the streaming charts, and it had the third biggest series premiere of any HBO Max series. It might not be for everyone – and not everything can or will be – but it seems like it’s for enough people, and with Season 2 already confirmed, hopefully that will continue.

New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms release Sundays at 10pm ET on HBO and HBO Max.

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