A dragon skull looms behind a row of candles, with two Targaryens in front of it.

Do you think there are dragons everywhere you look? According to a press release from the network, House of the Dragon was the largest audience for any new original series in the history of the network.

What is the total number of people watching? When you factor in the international markets of the streamer and the fact that people will also be watching today and throughout the week, that is... well, it is a crap-

The House of the Dragon's official account shared a video that shows a high-rise apartment all watching the show at the same time.

You can expect full support from the company for House of the Dragon even though it has gotten some bad ink recently for curtailing its catalog and scrapping some high-profile in-progress projects. Game ofThrones just wrapped its strongest week on HBO Max to date, capping off a seven-week stretch of week-over-week growth in engagement before the premiere of House of the Dragon. The proof is in the fact that even people who watched the previous season still wanted to watch the new one.

Will House of the Dragon be able to sustain the revived Game ofThrones fervor? We had mixed feelings about the premiere, but we will still be watching to see what the dragons and humans do next. There are new episodes on Sunday nights on the two networks.

Do you want to know more about io9. House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, as well as what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, can be found on this page.