With a reported billion dollars of investment in the series, Amazon certainly has a lot riding on its lavish fantasy The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and so there’ll certainly be many an executive at Amazon HQ breathing a little easier this week with the news that the series has delivered a record-breaking launch for the streaming service.
Launching this past Thursday with two episodes across more than 240 countries and territories worldwide, The Rings of Power attracted in excess of 25 million global viewers in its first 24 hours, the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video to date.
“It is somehow fitting that Tolkien’s stories – among the most popular of all time, and what many consider to be the true origin of the fantasy genre – have led us to this proud moment,” said Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke. “I am so grateful to the Tolkien Estate – and to our showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, executive producer Lindsey Weber, cast and crew – for their tireless collaborative efforts and boundless creative energy. And it is the tens of millions of fans watching – clearly as passionate about Middle-earth as we are – who are our true measure of success.”
SEE ALSO: Read our reviews of the first two episodes of The Rings of Power here and here
While it’s unclear as to how Amazon calculates a “view” in terms of minimum duration, the numbers certainly appear very impressive. Will it be able to maintain those viewing figures? We’ll find out when new episodes arrive every Friday through to October 14th.
Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 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, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power stars Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, and Sara Zwangobani.
New episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiere on Fridays on Prime Video.
