The Penguin destroys Rings of Power as HBO reveals huge viewership

There’s a new TV kingpin in town: HBO has revealed The Penguin’s opening viewership, and it’s dwarfed Rings of Power’s numbers.

Its reviews may have been strong, but Rings of Power Season 2 didn’t get off to the greatest start on ratings: its viewership plummeted nearly 50% compared to the Season 1 premiere.

This wasn’t surprising, considering the first season struggled to retain people’s interest, with just 37% of viewers in the US finishing the series.

However, while people are watching Season 2, other TV shows on streaming are more enticing. Namely, The Penguin, which earned 5.3 million viewers in its first four days across all platforms (HBO, streaming services like Max, and other channels).

HBO

To put that achievement into context, that’s more than Succession Season 4’s premiere, which fetched 4.9 million viewers. It’s also Max’s biggest four-day launch since The Last of Us, as reported by Variety.

It seems even bigger when you compare it to Rings of Power Season 2’s premiere, which was viewed by 902,000 households in its first four days. The Penguin had nearly six times as many viewers.

Other streaming charts paint a similar picture for the Lord of the Rings series, which has a vocal, but small fanbase (as well as outspoken critics). According to Luminate, it amassed 346 million minutes viewed between September 13-19, making it the fifth-most-watched show of the week.

That isn’t a bad accolade, but the numbers above it are substantially bigger: Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives garnered 537 million minutes, while Netflix’s Into the Fire, Emily in Paris, and The Perfect Couple racked up over 3.5 billion minutes between them.

Don’t expect Amazon to cancel Rings of Power, though. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Prime Video is “committed to the show’s original five-season plan.”

If you’re enjoying Rings of Power, make sure you know when to watch Episode 7, and check out our recaps of Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, and Episode 6.

If you’re more interested in the Batman spinoff, you can read our recap of The Penguin Episode 1 and bookmark our release schedule.