With the massive budget that Amazon Prime Video has allotted for the Lord of the Rings series, we expected Rings of Power to amass such a wide and dedicated viewership.
The second season just released its finale and Amazon revealed just how far the reach of the show has spread in its first month since release.
Rings of Power at 55 Million Viewers
According to Variety, since the launch of the second season on August 29, the show has managed to reach 55 million global viewers—that’s 15 million more viewers as compared to the premiere date which gather 40 million views.
The site also mentions that the series has managed to debut on the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 with 1 billion minutes watched, but that’s actually a drop from the 1.3 billion minutes that Season 1 was able to get to; plus, Season 2 is said to actually have longer episodes.
So was this considered a success, or a downward slope for Rings of Power?
For context, Fallout was said to have hit 65 million viewers in 16 days, and The Boys Season 4 was only able to gather 55 million views in a longer amount of time. If anything, it would be harder to compare these numbers to TROP; especially with Fallout since that show dropped its entire season on the first day—giving audiences way more to consume in a shorter amount of time.
The Numbers Are Still Rolling In
As is it turns out, the numbers may be impressive, but there is still the fact that Amazon isn’t as specific when it comes to reporting them. There’s no distinction as to whether they are counting the amount of minutes watched or the amount of times someone just played the show without actually finishing an episode.
There is also the case of considering demographics, on whether these numbers come from the US or other areas outside of North America.
The Fandom Is Strong
Despite what the numbers may say, The Rings of Power definitely has sparked a lot of discussion online—and most of it generally positive.
Though there were some toxic groups in the fandom, who were doing to The Rings of Power what they did with The Acolyte and House of the Dragon, there are a great majority of positive posts when it comes to TROP, and that’s likely because of so many elements—from the faithfulness to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, to the majestic visuals, CG and costumes.
Not to mention there has also been praise for the ensemble cast. Morfydd Clark absolutely shines as a younger, brash Galadriel, and her chemistry with evil boyfriend Sauron/Halbrand/Annatar Charlie Vickers could launch a thousand fan-fictions.
For now, it seems that Amazon Prime Video is committed to completing five seasons of the series, and with the positive buzz that the finale has been able to generate, maybe fans will be seeing even higher numbers reported in the future.
Catch The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.