The mega-expensive "Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is here after months of anticipation.

The show was the first Amazon series to top the latest streaming chart. The first two episodes of "The Rings of Power" were watched by over one billion people in the US.

Assuming there were no repeat viewers and everyone finished each episode, 10 million US viewers would be broken down at an hour in length for each episode.

There was a lot of pressure on "The Rings of Power" because of its high pricetag. The first season cost $465 million to make, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"The Rings of Power" had a good debut, but the show has faced growing pains. Since it's premiere, it's been hit by poor audience reception and online engagement has been lackluster.

"House of the Dragon", which aired less than two weeks before "The Rings of Power", didn't seem to face those challenges.

house of the dragon
"House of the Dragon."
HBO

"The Rings of Power" appeared to have won the battle of the prequels in their premiere. The company's data is highlighted in "House of the Dragon"

The first two episodes of "House of the Dragon" were watched by more than 700 million people, according to a report from the company. This didn't include the premiere of the show. It doesn't include linear programming on the network.

The data shows that "House of the Dragon" is more popular than they think. The premiere of the show was watched by almost 10 million viewers in the US, making it the biggest premiere in the network's history.

The show was watched for 800 million minutes over the course of a single week.

That doesn't mean that "The Rings of Power" didn't have a good premiere, it did, and it's currently on top of the charts. Amazon told Insider that the series "continues to be the most- watched show on Prime Video, breaking all previous viewing records."

It was against other Amazon shows.

  • As a reminder, "The Rings of Power's" first two episodes were watched for 1.253 billion minutes over its first four days.
  • "The Wheel of Time's" three-episode premiere was watched for 1.163 billion minutes in its first three-day weekend after it debuted last November.
  • "The Boys" was watched for 949 million minutes over the first weekend that its third season premiered with the first three episodes in June.
  • "The Terminal List" debuted all eight of its episodes at once in July, which were watched for 1.106 billion minutes in the show's debut weekend.