The first season of House of the Dragon has topped the list of the most-pirated TV shows in 2022 after breaking numerous records for HBO and HBO Max. The fantasy drama serves as a prequel to Game of Thrones, adapting George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood book and tracing the fall of House Targaryen, beginning with the death of Paddy Considine’s King Viserys and plotting by the Hightower family to unseat the Targaryens, all of which culminated in the war known as the Dance of the Dragons. House of the Dragon season 1 was created by Martin and showrunner Ryan Condal. It received generally positive reviews from critics and viewers, and even the less savoury parts of the Internet are noticing its success.
House of of Dragon surpassed many popular shows including it’s prequel Game of Thrones
As 2022 draws to a close, TorrentFreak announces that the most pirated TV show of the year is House of the Dragon. The HBO series has officially eclipsed its forerunner, Game of Thrones, which was leading the rankings for piracy even three years after its conclusion. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, a fellow fantasy drama, The Boys season 3, Moon Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Andor, Netflix’s Stranger Things season 4, and Paramount+’s Halo were all surpassed by the first season of House of the Dragon.
Nonetheless, Warner Bros. Discovery House of the Dragon’s high level of piracy in 2022 may not have been something HBO took great satisfaction in, but it is nonetheless encouraging for the future of the show. Game of Thrones maintained its top spot on many pirated charts in the three years since season 8’s release, even as recently as July, when it was reported to have had an average of over 8,500 searches per month. This is despite the show’s unfavourably received final season. While Game of Thrones may eventually surpass House of the Dragon on the pirated rankings, HBO’s decision to continue airing fresh seasons of the prequel suggests that it will continue to be a regular presence on such websites.
House of the Dragon has succeeded Game of Thrones admirably, even in more formal channels. The first season of the former has a 93 percent approval rating from critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, which is a full three points higher than the first season of the latter. The House of the Dragon pilot saw the highest single-day viewership for a series debut on HBO Max, and the number of people trying to watch the show on its first night of availability even caused the streaming service to crash. The HBO prequel has also broken numerous records for viewership.
The House of the Dragon season 1 finale attracted a record-breaking 9.3 million viewers across all of its platforms, the most for an HBO show’s season finale since the Game of Thrones series finale. This not only shows that fans are still interested in the franchise, but also that it may very well surpass the milestones set by its forerunner. In contrast to Game of Thrones, where he only contributed to writing four episodes and provided an outline for the final two books in his Song of Fire & Ice novel series while David Benioff and D.B. Weiss ran the show, Martin had a closer role in helping develop House of the Dragon for HBO. Although House of the Dragon is still in the hands of other creators, the favourable response to the show thus far and hints of adapting such iconic stories as the “Blood and Cheese” arc from Fire & Blood suggest they’ve learned their lessons from the underwhelming reception to the final two seasons of Game of Thrones and may be creating something that competes with it.
