“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” took the second position of Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings for Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, during which the first three episodes of Season 2 were available for four days. The Amazon Prime Video series was watched for 1 billion minutes during that time.
This does, however, mark a drop in viewership from the opening of Season 1. In 2022, the series debuted with 1.3 billion minutes watched — and that was spread across only two episodes. If Season 1 had dropped with three episodes as Season 2 did, its total would have been even higher. Additionally, the new billion-minute total also accounts for all viewership of Season 1 during the week of Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, during which many viewers were likely rewatching earlier episodes or discovering them for the first time.
To the series’ credit, Nielsen only accounts for viewership in the U.S., and Amazon consistently touts that “The Rings of Power” is especially popular in other countries, though data to support that claim has not been provided.
The only title to beat “The Rings of Power” during this viewing window was “Prison Break,” which has seen a resurgence in popularity since its addition to Netflix. The long-concluded Fox drama landed at No. 1 for the fourth week in a row, this time with 1.2 billion minutes watched across Netflix and Hulu.
More to come…
