‘The Rings Of Power’ season two viewing figures were down 60 per cent
The second season of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power saw its viewing figures drop 60 per cent from season one.
A new analysis from the data company Luminate, as reported by Deadline, revealed that the Amazon Prime Video series, which returned for its eight-episode second run on the streaming service in August last year, saw its total minutes watched fall by a sharp 60 per cent.
A previous report indicated that 902,000 households in the US watched the first episode of season two without four days of its debut, a dramatic dip from the 1.8million households that watched the premiere of season one. That episode delivered Amazon’s biggest premiere viewership ever at the time.
Created by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, the prequel series is set thousands of years before J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and depicts the rise of Sauron in Middle-earth’s Second Age.
The show’s cast is led by Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, alongside Lenny Henry, Ciarán Hinds and Rory Kinnear, with Jack Lowden joining in season two as a young Sauron.
Season two proved divisive among critics, but in a four-star review, NME wrote: “The action comes to a head in an epic battle told across two episodes, balanced against some excellent character work (and surprising deaths). Those who complained that nothing happened in House Of The Dragon’s sophomore effort will thrill at how The Rings Of Power refuses to slump.”
“Indeed, the second season improves on the first, sharpening its narrative and taking assured footsteps forward as the writers continue to tell this expansive tale. Let’s just hope the series doesn’t make like the hobbits and end up going in circles.”
Despite reports of the dropoff for the second season, Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke said in October that they will be sticking to their 50-episode commitment to the series.
“[That 50-episode] commitment is never the thing that’s driving what we’re doing,” Salke told Variety. “We’ll continue to make the show as long as we see global customers loving it and watching it to the point where – it is a business.
“Obviously, we need a large amount of people showing up. And there are a large amount of people, so there’s no debate about whether or not the show will continue.”
Salke added: “There’s well over 150 million viewers watching and engaging with the show. So I feel really good. I think we all do.”
Meanwhile, it was announced last May that a new Lord Of The Rings film will be released by Warner Bros. in 2026, with help from Peter Jackson.
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Max Pilley
NME
