House of the Dragon audience rose another 3% in Episode 5

While many shows regularly lose viewership during each typical season, HBO’s House of the Dragon turns out to be anything but typical.

The fifth episode of the wildly popular Game of Thrones prequel series – set 172 years before the original series – attracted 3% more viewers than the fourth episode (via Variety).

It was also revealed that the first five episodes of the 10-episode first season average a whopping 29 million viewers per episode, across all linear and all HBO streaming platforms to date.

Nielsen data shows that 2.576 million viewers watched the four linear HBO broadcasts of Episode 5 of House of the Dragon, which was halfway through this season.

That linear number represented a 4% increase from the 2.474 million who tuned in to the four HBO broadcasts of House of the Dragon Episode 4.

No data on the total viewership with linear plus streaming was given, although sources told Variety it was up 3% from last week.

The House of the Dragon premiere was watched by just under 10 million viewers across all platforms, with the second episode rising slightly to 10.2 million viewers.

While full streaming data was not available for the third episode, it lost approximately 1 million viewers on its linear cable broadcasts.

However, the fourth episode was up 5% across all platforms and now with the fifth episode’s increase, viewership may very well remain stable for the rest of the season.

However, it’s possible that another time jump — the show’s biggest to date in over a decade — could change that, as two lead roles will use different, older actresses.

Olivia Cooke replaces Emily Carey as the now elderly Queen Alicent, while Emma D’Arcy replaces fan favorite Milly Alcock as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen.

There is no indication of any other significant time jumps in store for fans in the second half of the first season.

House of the Dragon also stars Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Matt Smith as his nefarious brother Prince Daemon, and Rhys Ifans as Ser Otto Hightower.

The show has already been renewed for a second season on HBO, although there has already been a bit of a creative stir.

Miguel Sapochnik, who directed the pilot and co-showrunner with series creator Ryan Condal, has stepped down as co-showrunner for the second season.