Prime Video did something extremely rare and released audience figures for its “Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” series and, according to the stream, the production premiere broke records and had higher numbers than the before HBO’s “House of the Dragon”.
Breaking a long-standing precedent, Amazon has released viewer data for a Prime Video series for the first time ever. According to the company, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” was seen by 25 million viewers worldwide in the first 24 hours of availability of the first two episodes of the series.
Prime Video is present in 240 countries and territories around the world and revealed that this was its biggest debut to date. The series premiered on September 1, providing the first two episodes of the epic fantasy based on the work of JRR Tolkien.
The 25 million viewers revealed by Amazon are more than double the approximately 10 million viewers who saw the premiere of “House of the Dragon” on August 21, a figure that marked the largest opening in HBO history.
However, Amazon did not specify what it considers a view, nor how much of an episode needs to be seen for a person to be counted in the audience. Since Amazon has never revealed Prime Video series numbers before, it’s hard to make comparisons and determine how big the series debut actually was.
But Amazon says it was really great, saying last Saturday that “The Rings of Power” performance broke “all previous records, marking the biggest debut in Prime Video history.”
“It is somehow fitting that Tolkien’s stories – among the most popular of all time and what many consider the true origins of the fantasy genre – have brought us to this moment of pride,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon. Studios, in a statement provided by Amazon along with ratings for “The Rings of Power”. “I am so grateful to the Tolkien Estate – and our showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay, executive producer Lindsey Weber, cast and crew – for their tireless collaborative efforts and boundless creative energy. And it’s the tens of millions of fans watching – clearly as passionate about Middle-earth as we are – that are our true measure of success. “
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is the most expensive series in history, with values that are around 465 million dollars for the production of the first season alone, with a second already in development by Amazon. The series follows several characters in a little-known story in Tolkien’s Second Age of Middle-earth.
Negative public reaction
But, despite “The Rings of Power” receiving a lot of attention these days and the success of the ratings, not all is positive and the series has not performed well according to public reviews. Critics gave a respectable 84% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes, but the score is only 39%.
The information indicates that the series is receiving a lot of negative reviews from audiences who disagree with the decision to choose black actors such as elves, dwarves, hairy feet and others in Middle-earth, in addition to the lead of a female character, Galadriel.
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On Friday, Variety revealed that Prime Video had put series reviews on a 72-hour wait on its platform, to prevent negative reviews from protesting this portion of fans from disrupting production performance. Now, with this new procedure, Amazon can determine whether the negative reactions were created by robots or trolls.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” has two episodes available on Prime Video. The third episode arrives on the platform this Friday (9), at one in the morning.
The post “The Rings of Power”: Series Premiere Doubles Audience for “House of the Dragon” first appeared on Olhar Digital.
Source: Olhar Digital
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
