Once again, we compare the streaming performance Amazon's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" and HBO's "House of the Dragon" thanks to data collected by streaming search engine JustWatch (data includes subscription streaming as well as transactional streaming titles).
The data is in for the week ending October 16, 2022. It's the "Rings of Power" season finale this week - one final chance for the show to wave its magic staff and produce a late victory over those dragon people. Did it work?
In Australia, while "House of the Dragon" jumped up two places to second place, "The Rings of Power" did get into the top 10, to a fairly high 3rd place. Still behind the HBO juggernaut, but at least the finale was well-watched. It's also worth noting again that JustWatch only counts streaming data, so there's actually more people not being included here who are watching "House of the Dragon" on traditional cable - there is no traditional cable audience for "Rings".
Both shows made the U.S. top 10 as well after a few weeks of absences. "House of the Dragon" sits proudly at the top of the chart, while "The Rings of Power" had to settle for (a still high) third place.
And finally, looking at the global situation, it's fantastic to see two fantasy shows at the top of the streaming charts, but once again, it was "House of the Dragon" that was on top, with "The Rings of Power" in second place - both ranking higher than last week.
With "The Rings of Power" now having ended its season, but "House of the Dragon" having one more week to go, this was probably the last chance the Amazon Prime show had of beating the HBO "Game of Thrones" prequel series. And while it failed in that aspect, "The Rings of Power" was consistently in the top 10 globally, and that's a good result for the first season of a show (even if it's based on an established IP). This is the kind of performance that only the best Marvel or Star Wars shows can achieve, albeit at lower budgets.
So in conclusion, a great, but not excellent first season for "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power", but a superb first season for "House of the Dragon".
