House of the Dragon’s second episode beats record-breaking premiere in ratings

House of the Dragon’s second episode surpassed the record-breaking viewership figures of its premiere.

The high-budget Game of Thrones spin-off aired its second episode on HBO Max on Sunday 28 August in the US. The new episode arrived simultaneously during the early hours of Monday morning on Sky and NOW in the UK.

Read The Independent’s recap of the episode here.

Last week, HBO reported that House of the Dragon premiere was watched by nearly 10 million people in the US, making it the most viewed series premiere in HBO’s history.

The news was promptedly followed by the announcement that the series had been renewed for a second season.

Now, the official Inside HBO Max Twitter account revealed that episode two beat the opening episode, being watched by 10.2 million US viewers on the streaming service and linear television combined. The figures were based on a combination of Nielsen TV ratings and first party data.

TV spin-offs typically have significant rates of viewer drop-off between the first and second episodes. For instance, Better Call Saul, the recently concluded spin-off to the hit AMC crime drama Breaking Bad, attracted 6.88 million viewers to its premiere back in 2015; this number sunk to just 3.22 million for its second week.

Game of Thrones was also the second most watched programme on HBO last week.

House of the Dragon’s second episode did provoke some degree of controversy among fans, however, with some viewers taking issue with the re-use of a key Game of Thrones feature.