Amazon released some viewership numbers for the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The company says 40 million viewers worldwide have watched at least some of the first three new Rings of Power episodes through the sophomore season’s first 11 days. The company did not make clear, however, how much of the season, or an episode, those 40 million people viewed. (Amazon’s figure is also different from the increasingly adopted standard of streaming views, which divides total viewing time by running time.)
Amazon also noted Rings of Power is a Top 5 all-time season for Prime Video (compared to the first 11 days of other shows), and has been No. 1 for the service since its return.
The message follows third-party ratings services claiming the second season’s viewership has dropped sharply from the show’s debut season. According to Samba TV, only about half as many U.S. households watched the season two premiere as did the series opener over their first three days of release.
Also, to be fair, given The Rings of Power had an industry record-breaking budget of $715 million for debut season, the new episodes probably need to be a Top 5 contender for the service (if not Top 2).
“Through the second weekend of launch, according to our key measures, the series is showing that we have another huge hit season on our hands as 40 million viewers have already watched S2,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, said in a memo to her team. “We’ve also observed that tens of millions of viewers have watched S1 since early August. We’ve seen an impressive amount of our Rings of Power customers coming from outside of the U.S., which is a testament to the show’s resonance with global audiences and the remarkable growth of Prime Video customers worldwide.”
Salke also touted the return of Reacher, to the blockbuster first season launch of Fallout, ratings growth for season four of The Boys, and films Road House and The Idea of You.
