Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon brought fire and blood to 9.89 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max for its series premiere episode on Sunday (August 21), despite early leaks and service outages.

This eclipsed other HBO powerhouse premieres such as that of Euphoria Season Two, which drew 2.4 million viewers in January of this year (2022) and the original Game of Thrones pilot which aired to 4.2 million people in 2011.

HBO said Sunday night viewership typically represents 20 per cent to 40 per cent of the show’s total audience.

House of the Dragon tells the story of the ‘Dance of Dragons’, the Targaryen civil war that caused the eventual extinction of dragons 172 years before the events portrayed in Game of Thrones.

It is based on George R.R. Martin’s novel Fire and Blood.

The premiere did not come without its issues as more than 3,000 HBPO Max subscribers reported outages as they attempted to watch on Sunday.

HBO parent company Warner Bros Discovery Inc said: “We’re aware of a small portion of users attempting to connect via Fire TV devices.”

Amazon, the maker of Fire TV, said the problem had been resolved as of Monday (August 22).

The cast features actors such as Matt Smith, who previously played an iteration of Dr Who; Paddy Considine, who played Father John Hughes in Peaky Blinders; and Eve Best, who played Dr Eleanor O’Hara in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie.

George R.R. Martin co-created the series with Ryan Condal, who also serves as co-showrunner with director Miguel Sapochnik. Martin, Condal and Sapochnik all executive produce alongside Sara Hess, Jocelyn Diaz, Vince Gerardis and Ron Schmidt.