This past Thursday, October 31st, Amazon released its third quarter report detailing the company’s financials and performance. Tucked in the report was a single line about the company’s flagship non-canonical series The Rings of Power for Prime Video. But there is an issue. According to Amazon, The Rings of Power Season 2 was “Prime Video’s most watched returning season ever by hours watched.” On the surface, it sounds great. However, did Amazon just confirm that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, their “most watched” return show, underperformed in regards to global viewers compared to Season 1?
What is interesting is that Amazon stated that the show was the most watched by hours rather than by viewership. When season 1 finally concluded, the company eventually shared that 100 million global viewers tuned into the show that amounted to 24 billion minutes being watched. But that number was deceptive as it didn’t account for who watched the entirety of the show compared to someone who randomly watched a couple of minutes and then changed to another program.
When broken down, the 100 million global viewers and 24 billion minutes watched statistics mostly fell in line with previous reports that there was a 37% domestic retention rate and 50% global viewer retention rate of who watched the entirety of The Rings of Power Season 1. Which brought up the question of whether or not The Rings of Power Season 1 was a flop for Amazon.
In order to guess what the amount of hours watched and global viewers for The Rings of Power Season 2 could be, we have to find out which show was kicked out of the number one position or, if that information is undisclosed, draw a conclusion based on what little information can be gleaned from Amazon and other outlets.
Which isn’t much since Amazon doesn’t disclose such statistics often or with specificity.
What we do know is that Amazon’s Fallout series, based on the video game franchise , is the company’s second most-watched original title having garnered 65 million global viewers within the first 16 days. A faster rate than The Rings of Power Season 2’s 55 million over a time period of 34 days. As for a recurring series, The Boys Season 4 reached a similar benchmark of 55 million within 39 days. However, The Boys haven’t been disclosed as being in the number one or two position for recurring shows. All that we know is that Amazon appears to be pleased with its statistics which includes The Boys Season 4 being number 1 on “Prime Video in over 165 countries in its first two weeks.”
Given this information, we know for a fact that The Rings of Power Season 1 is still Amazon’s most watched original series with 100 million global viewers and that Fallout is second with 65 million. So, it is safe to assume that The Rings of Power Season 2 garnered, at the very most, less than 65 million global viewers.
Unfortunately, trying to determine how many minutes were watched is harder to do since such information wasn’t released for The Boys Season 4 or Fallout. While Fallout may not have outpaced The Rings of Power in terms of viewership and minutes watched, its meteoric numbers outpaced Amazon’s fantasy show and could be a good indicator that, come Fallout Season 2, it could outperform The Rings of Power.
Amazon’s recent report on The Rings of Power Season 2 offers more questions than answers regarding the show’s true performance regarding viewership and times watched. By emphasizing “hours watched” rather than unique viewers, Amazon’s continuing ambiguity surrounding the show’s actual reach and impact is a frustrating one no matter which side of the coin you fall on. As stated before, Season 1 reportedly attracted 100 million viewers yet only retained a portion of them. Which means that a conclusion can be made that Season 2’s viewership appears to fall short of Amazon’s second most-watched original title, Fallout, with 65 million viewers. Knowing this, it’s reasonable to infer that The Rings of Power Season 2 drew a notably smaller audience.
While Amazons’ The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power may still rank as the most-watched returning season on Prime Video by hours, this metric alone does not imply the same level of popularity among new or returning viewers. Without a precise breakdown, it’s unclear if Season 2 sustained engagement across a dedicated viewership or benefitted from passive watching. Amazon’s shift towards measuring “hours watched” may signal a shift in strategy or a deflection from viewer-based benchmarks is a sign that The Rings of Power Season 2 did not retain the same level of mass appeal as Season 1.
If Amazon hadn’t included the phrase “most watched returning season” then it could automatically be assumed that the watched hours could have been, at the very least, 24 billion-and-one to beat out Season 1. But that’s not the case here and we haven’t been able to ascertain what other recurring shows could have been number one.
In fact, it is highly likely that the numbers will reflect that the show’s fanbase is what drove The Rings of Power Season 2’s watch time high via re-watching the show. It will most likely be true that there was a significant drop in the general audience tuning in for Season 2 as well. A fact further supported by the lack of information regarding The Rings of Power Season 2 finale and its performance. Whatever is going on behind the scenes at Amazon MGM Studios warrants attention as the company went from being confident in a five-season run for The Rings of Power to admitting that such a commitment is not set in stone and coould be cancelled. Nor should the fact be ignored that Season 3 has yet to be confirmed.
So did Amazon confirm that The Rings of Power Season 2 underperformed when compared to Season 1?
Yes. It is safe to say that The Rings of Power Season 2 has underperformed compared to Season 1. A conclusion that was being drawn before the season ended as domestic viewership numbers from Luminate, Samba TV, and Nielsen showed from their weekly reports. But, how much of a difference is anyone’s guess. And whether or not Amazon will disclose that information has yet to be seen.
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