"House of the Dragon" season 2 finale slammed by viewers

Flying dragons in the skies didn't help. The second season of "House of the Dragon" started with lower viewership than the first and ended the same way. Worse still, the final episode greatly disappointed viewers. Some are even calling it "the worst season finale in history".

On 17 June, the first episode of the second season of "House of the Dragon" debuted on the Max platform. It neither captivated viewers nor stirred emotions, and this trend continued with subsequent episodes. Because of this, the days of "Game of Thrones" did not return. Although the first two seasons became quite big hits for Max, they couldn’t replicate the level of interest and fascination with the story and its characters on the internet and social media that "Game of Thrones" did.

"House of the Dragon" also received mixed reviews. HBO's bosses' explanations did not convince viewers: “My philosophy is a good script is the number one priority. I am not doing it based on wanting to have one a year or two a year. I want to do it based on the scripts that we’re excited about.” These words do not hold up in the context of the second season's content, especially the very weak finale.

On social media, many opinions were expressed that the finale of the second season of "House of the Dragon" became "the worst season ending in history. “For most of the episodes, not much happened; the action could be summarised in a few sentences. However, the finale surprised me. Nothing noteworthy happened. In my opinion, this story could already be over,” wrote one critic.

However, Most viewers will wait for the next season, hoping that HBO's bosses will finally keep their promise and that a good script will become an absolute priority. Changes are necessary because the second season of "House of the Dragon" had weaker viewership from the first to the last episode than the previous season and received worse ratings from viewers (only two episodes stood out positively: the fourth and seventh).

According to "Deadline," the final episode of "House of the Dragon" drew 8.9 million American viewers across all platforms during its Sunday night premiere. This is a 14 percent increase compared to the second season premiere (7.8 million) and a slight decline compared to the first season finale (9 million). It is known that most viewers watch the series with some delay. The average viewership for the second season's episodes is nearly 25 million in the US, whereas the first season had 29 million viewers per episode.