Is Amazon Obfuscating With The Rings of Power’s 40 Million Global Views Statistic Following The Season 2 Premiere? [Updated]

Amazon has finally released some statistics for The Rings of Power since the Season premiere was released August 29th. Up until then, Rings of Power fans were coping over the analytics posted by Samba TV and Luminate which showed a significant decline in viewership for the Season 2 Premiere. But now that cope has turned to hope as Amazon reported that 40 million global viewers watched The Rings of Power since the release of Season 2’s three-episode premiere. However, Amazon appears to be hiding behind its 40 million statistic which is highly illuminating.

At face value, 40 million viewers sounds significant. Especially if the number was for the first 24 hours of Season 2’s premiere. Yet that isn’t the case. In fact, the company only gave us a figure without any context. Deadline reports that the 40 million global viewers was counted over the past 11 days which coincides with the start of Rings of Power Season 2, according to an internal memo sent to employees from Head of Amazon MGM Studios Jennifer Salke.

If true, then that means there is a strong possibility that Rings of Power Season 2’s premiere 24 hour viewership could have ended up being far below Season 1’s premiere, which Amazon had been quick to announce came in at 25 million global viewers within 24 hours. Either Season 2’s premiere saw a huge number within the first 24 hours which plummeted after that for the next 10 days, or the viewership numbers were spread out. However, since the premiere was aired, Episode 4 also was released which further dilutes the potential viewership numbers for the premiere.

This is all compounded even further when you realize that Season 1’s premiere only had two episodes and Season 2 featured three episodes for its premiere.

When determining whether or not The Rings of Power Season 1 was objectively a flop, we had to utilize what little information Amazon had provided to us. According to Amazon, Season 1 amassed 32 billion minutes streamed with 100 million global viewers. Again, at face value, this sounds impressive. But when quickly crunching numbers, you realize that a large percentage of viewers didn’t finish watching the show and gave credence to the reports that 37% of domestic viewers, and 50% of global viewers, watched the entire season.

Which could explain why Amazon didn’t include the minutes watched in conjunction with its 40 million global viewers number. Because that 40 million viewers doesn’t account for how many watched all three episodes. But even accounting for the fact that most show’s, when it comes to Season 2, will see a drop in viewership numbers, the drop for The Rings of Power is significant. In fact, it we took season 1’s percentages, then only 20 million global viewers watched all three episodes at best.

There is too much obfuscation on the part of Amazon to take this at face value and, when approaching it logically, the picture being painted continues to lead to the opinion that Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is greatly underperforming when compared to Season 1. 

Unfortunately for Amazon, we can’t even guess as to whether or not The Rings of Power 2 is, overall, on track to beat Season 1’s 100 million global viewer benchmark. We will have to wait for more information from Amazon, and take it with a grain of salt, while also looking forward to seeing what Nielsen Ratings releases in regards to their findings. 

Suffice to say, Amazon does appear to be obfuscating The Rings of Power Season 2’s performance so far.

Update: Nielsen finally released their own analytics which showed Season 2 with 4.9 million viewers, which is an estimated 47% decline in viewership, compared to Season 1’s 9.4 million viewers. These numbers, of course, are a best case scenario. Shortly upon Nielsen releasing its finding, the official The Rings of Power X account posted a tweet which stated,

“1 billion minutes watched in the first week in the US, according to Nielsen. Our international viewer number is about three times the US audience so thank you to the global fans for continuing to make The Rings of Power #1 worldwide on Prime Video!”

Amazon continues to obfuscate and play coy with what little information it has released. However, if we take what the account says at face value, then that means Amazon is claiming there were 14.7 million global viewers who watched the entire premiere if we multiply our estimated 4.9 million Nielsen viewers who watched the show by 3 (we are being generous since Amazon said “about three times”).

Once again, this is a best-case scenario based on the assumption that these people watched the premiere in its entirety. A number that falls alarmingly short of the 40 million global viewers that the company revealed. Which is a 36.75% drop in global viewers for Season 2’s premiere and falls short of Amazon’s 50% global viewer retention of Season 1. Considering that 40 million people tuned into the the premiere means that there were far less than 14.7 million people who watched the entire three episode premiere for The Rings of Power Season 2.

If these numbers stick to the estimates we have calculated, than Amazon’s The Rings of Power Season 2 will see a significant drop in viewer retention rate for the entire season compared to Season 1’s 50% global views. Season 2’s global count for Season 2 could end up being around 40% at best. Most likely far less after the outrage over Elrond kissing Galadriel this season.

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