HBO Max’s Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon continued its run as the top streaming series in North America last week, although Netflix’s new Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which was the streamer’s biggest hit since Squid Game. Given Netflix’s position as the top streaming platform in the world, it’s always a bit surprising when a big hit for Netflix doesn’t become the overall #1 series in the streaming space — but given that Dahmer isn’t nearly as expensive as Houes of the Dragon is, and their ratings came shockingly close to one another, everyone involved is probably feeling pretty good about how the numbers shake out.
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Exact numbers are not provided, with streaming ratings being provided in a similar way to how comic book sales are tallied. Rather than learning the exact number of viewers, shows are ranked relative to an “average series” number. Last week, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story had 50.2 times the average series demand for last week, versus House of the Dragon, which weighed in at 52.8 times this week, according to Parrot Analytics’ data. Parrot’s numbers take into account consumer research, streaming, downloads and social media, among other engagement, according to TheWrap.
According to HBO’s official House of the Dragon synopsis, “The prequel series finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires-real and imagined-crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm.”
The series is a rare bright spot for Warner Bros. Discovery right now. The company’s reputation is suffering as new management seems determined to sabotage HBO Max from within, removing content and frustrating both their subscribers and the talent whose work is being discarded. If the cancellation of the nearly-complete Batgirl movie is anything to go by, it seems most of these moves are meant to save small amounts of money, in order to offset the massive debt Discovery took on to acquire Warner Bros. from AT&T.
You can catch new episodes of the series on Sunday nights on HBO Max’s ad-free tier.
