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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘s premiere episodes attracted more than 25 million global viewers on its first day of release, Amazon announced Saturday. That number marks the biggest premiere in Prime Video history — though the streamer stopped short of declaring how much of an episode a subscriber must watch in order to be counted in its tally.
The Rings of Power‘s strong debut comes on the heels of HBO’s own big fantasy swing, the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, setting a premiere record for the streamer. At last tally, House of the Dragon’s series opener was approaching 25 million viewers in the U.S., after one week of availability.
“It is somehow fitting that Tolkien’s stories — among the most popular of all time, and what many consider to be the true origin of the fantasy genre — have led us to this proud moment,” Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke said in a statement. “I am so grateful to the Tolkien Estate, and to our showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, executive producer Lindsey Weber, cast and crew, for their tireless collaborative efforts and boundless creative energy. And it is the tens of millions of fans watching, clearly as passionate about Middle-Earth as we are, who are our true measure of success.”
The series’ first two episodes, which dropped Sept. 1 at 9 pm ET, earned an average TVLine reader grade of “B+.” Subsequent episodes will unspool weekly, Fridays at 3 am ET, culminating with the Oct. 14 season finale.
