Season 2 of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” was the second most-watched original streaming series in the U.S. between August 30 and September 2 – the four days of Labor Day weekend – according to Luminate.
This was the first streaming weekend of the season, but the first day on August 29 is excluded. Amazon Prime Video has released three episodes so far, totaling a total runtime of 204 minutes. Therefore, the episodes’ 553.5 million minutes watched during that time translates to an estimated 2.7 million views.
The only series to beat “The Rings of Power” according to Luminate’s measurements was “Worst Ex Ever,” which reached 633.3 million viewing minutes in the same amount of time. But because the Netflix series is longer than the first three episodes of “Rings of Power,” which are 230 minutes, the two series were more equal in terms of estimated views. “Worst Ex Ever” ended the weekend with 2.8 million views, calculated by dividing the total time viewed by the duration of the project.
It’s likely that “Rings of Power” will remain high on the charts in the coming weeks as five remaining episodes drop weekly on Thursdays, although season 2 has had a slightly slower start compared to the series debut in 2022. Per Luminate, the Season 1’s Labor Day opening, racked up 1.2 billion viewing minutes in four days, or 8.9 million estimated views when considering the 132-minute runtime of the two episodes initially made available. It’s to be expected that a major IP title will see a decline between seasons 1 and 2 – a similar title, HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’, drew 7.8 million viewers in its second season opener, compared to 10 million in its series premiere – although “Rings of Power’s” was steeper.
When asked about audience goals and expectations ahead of the season 2 premiere of “Rings of Power,” Vernon Sanders, head of U.S. and global TV for Amazon MGM Studios, emphasized: Variety that the company’s roughly $100 million to $150 million investment per season also serves to “drive people down all of Amazon’s avenues,” including retail and music. “We want to attract people to the service and we hope to get many registrations again.”
It is not yet known whether Amazon will release proprietary data on the viewership of “Rings of Power” Season 2, although further measurements by both Luminate and Nielsen will provide a fuller picture in the coming weeks.
(Revelation: Variety and Luminate share a common owner in PMC.)