The “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragons” is significantly more popular with streaming pirates than the new “Lord of the Rings” series.
Enlarge
“House of the Dragon” is well received by the fans.
© HBO
With “House of the Dragon” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, two new epic fantasy series celebrated their premiere in the last few weeks. Although the two series do not have much in common – apart from their fantasy setting – they are constantly subjected to comparisons in the media. In terms of ratings, “House of the Dragon” has the edge. According to Variety, the “Game of Thrones” prequel has about 29 million viewers per episode on HBO’s streaming service. According to Amazon Prime Video, the Tolkien series had 25 million viewers for the pilot episode.
Rings of Power: The first reviews on Amazon – and a cool Echo 4 in the Lord of the Rings design
“House of the Dragon” also popular with pirates
The Torrenfreak website now lets the two series compete against each other in a torrent comparison. Using the IKnow tool, the editors examined a large sample of millions of global bittorrent transmissions over the past two weeks. Here, too, “House of the Dragon” emerges as the clear winner. Over the course of two weeks, the series racked up over nine million illegal downloads worldwide, compared to just five million for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Russia as a torrent leader
The two series are most popular among streaming pirates in Russia. Torrents are traditionally very popular there and due to the sanctions against the country, it is currently impossible for Russian viewers to watch the series legally. Brazil and the USA are in second and third place. Germany does not appear in the top 10. In this country, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is available on Amazon Prime Video. House of the Dragon is available to watch exclusively on Sky Q.
