The cinemas were open for wider audience without any restrictions. Despite this, the OTT was going stronger than ever. The pandemic boosted the performances of many OTT platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and others. Along with shows, there were movie releases. But, the most commercially successful series that come out of 2022 are ‘Dahmer’ on Netflix, ‘Rings of Power’ on Prime Video, and ‘House of the Dragon’ on HBO.
The Ryan Murphy-led series ‘Dahmer’ was based on the Milwaukee-based serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. It became a hugely successful show for Netflix. ‘House of the Dragon’, the prequel to one of the most successful fantasy fiction shows ‘Game of Thrones’ based on George R.R. Martin created a lot of buzz since its premiere in August 2022. The JRR Tolkien-based series ‘Rings of Power’ took us on to the odyssey of the second age of Middle Earth. All three mentioned shows displayed great potential and viewers’ liking, but which of them emerged victorious?
Read More: What Was The Viewership Of’House Of The Dragon’ Finale? Was It More Than ‘Game Of Thrones’?
Dahmer Became The Most Watched Show On Streaming
Netflix shadow-released ‘Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story’ on September 21st, 2022. Evan Peters played the titular character. Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan wrote the script for the series. Peters delivered a riveting performance as the serial killer.
The story is inspired by the serial killer and cannibal, Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer, who went on a rampage killing 17 men. Later, Dahmer was convicted of 16 murders. He also indulged in cannibalism, preservation of body parts, and necrophilia.
In October 2022, the 10-episode series became the second most-watched series of all time on Netflix. The show was watched for 701.37 million hours. ‘Stranger Things’ fourth season was watched 1.35 billion hours. In December 2022, the series joined the ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Squid Games’ club to complete the 1 billion hours mark. It was made on a budget of $60 million.
If we use the Complete Viewings Equivalent(CVE), the series had better performance than the other two series in question. It had 23.5 million CVEs in the first month of its release. On December 6th, 2022, when Netflix announced the series’ milestone, it reached 113 million CVEs. The controversies that emerged each week also piqued the interest of the viewers.
Read More: ‘The Rings Of Power’: What Is Mount Doom And Why Is It Important In Sauron’s Plan?
‘The Rings Of Power’ Vs ‘House Of The Dragon’: Which Fantasy Show Was Most Watched
Both Prime Video and HBO Max were riding high with ‘The Rings of Power’ and ‘House of the Dragon’, respectively. The latter show had higher expectations due to its predecessor ‘Game Of Thrones’. It premiered on HBO in the US and garnered 10 million views making it the most-watched show on HBO. The clashes of the house of Targaryens in their conquest to conquer the Seven Kingdoms. It takes place 200 years before the events of ‘Game of Thrones’. Its finale week took the series to 1.1 billion minutes watched according to Nielsen’s streaming.
Whereas, its competition in the fantasy drama series, Prime Video’s ‘The Rings of Power’ took us on the journey of the valor of the legends in Middle-Earth. As per the logline, “The epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin”. When the show aired, it had 25 million views, and it was the first time Prime Video released statistics.
In comparison, despite the strong first-week tally, the show had a flattening curve than the ‘House of the Dragon’. The Prime Video show had 15.4 CVEs and the HBO show had 15.2 CVEs. There was a time before the ‘House of the Dragon’ finale when the other show did well. After the finales of both series, it was ‘The Rings of Power’ which clocked in 1.1 billion minutes viewed in comparison to the 1 billion minutes of the ‘House of the Dragon’. If we look at the statistics, ‘Dahmer’ and ‘The Rings of Power’ seem to top the list of the most streamed series. But, the ‘House of Dragon’ showed promising progression in its viewership. The number of episodes may also affect the ratings.
Read More: What Did Evan Peters Do To Stay In Character For ‘Dahmer’ Series?
