Nielsen Streaming Top 10: ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘The Rings of Power’ Face Off for the First Time

variety.com:

Selome Hailu The two buzziest genre projects on TV rights now are finally having their first viewership battle. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon” and Amazon Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings” expansion “The Rings of Power” both appeared on Nielsen’s streaming rankings for the week of Aug.

29-Sept. 4, with “The Rings of Power” coming out on top — taking the No. 1 position with 1.3 billion minutes viewed. “House of the Dragon” was behind it, ranking as No.

5 and being watched for 781 million minutes. (Note: Nielsen measures only U.S. viewing on television screens, excluding other countries and devices.) This isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, as the availability of the two series doesn’t match up exactly. “The Rings of Power” debuted with two episodes at 9 p.m.

ET on Sept. 1, meaning they were streamable for the last three days plus a few hours of Nielsen’s viewing window. By contrast, “House of the Dragon” premiered its first episode at 9 p.m.