Amazon’s new adaptation of The Lord of the Rings marked the streaming service’s largest premiere ever.
Key details
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiered online on Amazon Prime Video on Friday and opened to the largest opening in the 15-year history of the streaming service.
“Launching with two episodes in 240 countries and territories across the globe on September 1, the J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay co-created Rings of Power snared more 25 million viewers in its first day,” reports Deadline.
Why it’s important
The successful premiere is a victory for the studio that has sunk nearly $1 billion into developing its adaptation of Tolkien’s work. As we previously reported, the future of Amazon Prime Video is hinging on the show’s success, and viewership failure could spell doom for Amazon’s five-year investment.
There is speculation that Amazon might’ve tried to downplay bad numbers had the show underdelivered in viewership. Streaming services are in a brittle position of late, with many of them cracking down on account sharing or canceling expensive projects. Amazon has an active incentive to proclaim the show’s success.
“Word from those who’ve seen episodes is positive, and several industry insiders predicted to Insider that Amazon will find a way, regardless of actual viewership, to sound the trumpets of victory… If it’s not the highest-performing thing Amazon has ever done, it’s a failure… But the outside world may not ever know,” says Business Insider.
Amazon did not specify how it measures a view, nor how much of an episode a user needs to watch to count as a viewer.
Surprising statistics
Amazon may be able to breathe easily though. Parrot Analytics reports that the demand for Lord of the Rings content is 8.4 times higher than the average TV series demand in the United States.
Backing up a bit
The success of Rings of Power comes in the aftermath of HBO similarly celebrating the record-breaking premiere of its new fantasy series House of the Dragon, with 9.986 million views for the premiere.