House of the Dragon Season 1 Finale Draws Strong Viewership for HBO

After the reaction to the end of Game of Thrones, there were many questions about whether House of the Dragon would be able to reach the same success.
House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 10 -- the season finale -- netted 9.3 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, becoming the biggest finale night for an HBO original since the series-ender of the mothership in 2019.
Those numbers are enormous and signal that the show is doing well.
"We're so thrilled to see House of the Dragon catch fire with Game of Thrones fans around the world, as well as new viewers who are discovering the world of Westeros for the first time," said Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and HBO Max.
"Congrats to George, Ryan, Miguel and the whole House of the Dragon team on an incredible first season."
The series debuted on Sunday, August 21, to the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO and the best series launch on HBO Max across the U.S., Latin America, and Europe.
All episodes of the series are now averaging 29 million viewers in the U.S., more than tripling their average debut night audience with strong catch-up viewing.
For comparison, this is tracking closely behind the average audience for Game of Thrones Season 7, which averaged 32.8M viewers per episode in the U.S.
Several projects in the Game of Thrones universe are in various stages of development, but we do know that House of the Dragon has been renewed for Season 2.
Ahead of the finale's official airing on HBO and HBO Max, it was leaked onto torrent websites.
HBO said it was "aggressively pulling copies from the internet" to allow fans to watch the episode at the same time on Sunday.
“HBO is aggressively monitoring and pulling these copies from the internet," the company said in a statement.
"We’re disappointed that this unlawful action has disrupted the viewing experience for loyal fans of the show, who will get to see a pristine version of the episode when it premieres Sunday.”
What are your thoughts on the stellar numbers?
Were you impressed by the conclusion?
Hit the comments below.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.