Emma D’Arcy in ‘House of the Dragon’ and Morfydd Clark in ‘The Lord of the Rings.’

‘Rings of Power’ vs ‘House of the Dragon’: Which show is winning the popularity battle?

Audience and social media data give a sense of the results of the confrontation between the two epic fantasies

NATALIA MARCOS

Madrid, 3 November 2022

It wasn’t a battle, but it was. It wasn’t, because there didn’t have to be a victor and a loser – both could have triumphed (and lost). But the simultaneous release of House of the Dragon and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power inevitably pitted them against one another. Now that the voyages back to Middle Earth and to Westeros have ended, and the first seasons are over, which has won in terms of popularity.

Harry Collett, Emma D'Arcy and Oscar Eskinazi, in a scene from the second season of 'House of the Dragon.'THEO WHITEMAN

War comes to ‘House of the Dragon’: ‘It’s a story about two women and it will continue to be until the end’

The second season of the ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoff delves into the confrontation between two sides of the Targaryen house. ‘We want to reward the audience for sticking with us,’ says showrunner Ryan Condal

NATALIA MARCOS
Paris, 18 June 2024

The Dance of Dragons is about to begin. On one side, the Black Council, with Rhaenyra claiming her place on the Iron Throne. On the other, the Green Council, with Aegon on the throne, backed by his mother, Alicent Hightower. The rifts within the very broken Targaryen family have turned into gaping divides, accentuated by painful deaths. Tragedy struck at the end of the first season of House of the Dragon, the series that has returned to the phenomenon that was Game of Thrones to tell the past of this saga of dragon riders. The Dance of Dragons, the civil war in the Targaryen, is imminent and inevitable.