Ser Duncan the Tall emerged bruised but victorious from his Trial of Seven, but HBO might have been the real winner. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the six-episode Game of Thrones spin-off that just wrapped up its delightful first season, scored its largest audience to date with its finale, “The Morrow.”
The Hollywood Reporter writes that HBO data reveals 9.5 million people watched the finale across its first three days, its “largest audience to date.”
It was previously reported that each episode was averaging 14 million viewers—besting even HBO’s Emmy-winning medical drama The Pitt—so presumably that means the finale will get there at an accelerated pace. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been a hit from the jump, notching the third-biggest debut season for HBO Max, behind House of the Dragon and The Last of Us.
Speaking of House of the Dragon, season three is arriving in June, and no doubt HBO is hoping the revived interest in Westeros thanks to the antics of Dunk, Egg, Egg’s extended Targaryen family, and other Ashford Meadow denizens will keep eyes fixed on the George R.R. Martin adaptation.
House of the Dragon‘s second season delivered strong ratings, but it didn’t reach the heights of its blockbuster first installment.
And it will indeed be interesting to see if A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ success sparks a ripple effect, not just in terms of House of the Dragon‘s viewership—a very different show, with far more Targaryens to keep track of—or future seasons of Dunk and Egg adventures (so far, just one more season has been greenlit). What about all those other Game of Thrones spin-offs that HBO’s been keeping close at hand? Could we see movement on yet another new series in Martin’s vast world?
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