House of the Dragon most watched Sky Atlantic premiere ever
September 6, 2022
By Nik Roseveare
House of the Dragon, the prequel series to Game of Thrones, has proven there is still a huge appetite for the adult-fantasy franchise with the premiere episode on Sky in the UK having attracted 4.08 million total views to date, according to BARB.
This makes House of the Dragon, based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, the biggest US drama launch ever on Sky and the biggest ever series premiere on Sky Atlantic in the channel’s 11-year history.
The latest figure of 4.08 million is comprised of all viewing to date to the opening episode including those tuning into original linear premiere, those who have chosen to catch up on demand on Sky or streaming service NOW since its original air date, and customers catching up on recordings. The 7-day cumulative figure for episode 1 (3.78 million) is bigger than the launch of its predecessor Game of Thrones in 2011 and it is already ahead of the 28-day launches for series 1 to 5 of those shows, by which point the franchise had grown to be the one of the most talked about shows in the world.
House of the Dragon is also one of the biggest launches across Sky’s social channels with 75 million impressions and 38 million videos views of content to date. With three quarters of a million Google searches, the show has fast become one of the most talked about shows in the UK this year.
Sky has now made the full first episode available on their YouTube channels for all UK fans to watch for free.
MD of Content at Sky, Zai Bennett said: “Momentum around House of the Dragon just continues to build, as more and more people spread the word about its ever-current narrative of political power play married with visuals of epic scale and imagination. And thanks to Sky making the first episode freely available to watch via YouTube, more people than ever before will be able to sample the world-class world of Westeros.”
New episodes of House of the Dragon land every Monday exclusively on Sky and streaming service NOW in the UK.