It looks like Tolkien hasn’t lost his touch. In just 24 hours of its premiere, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power drew in 25 million viewers to Amazon Prime Video.
The series released its first two episodes on 1 September (2 September in some regions), and were available for streaming on Prime Video in 240 countries and territories.
“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,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said in a statement provided by Amazon along with the The Rings of Power viewership numbers.
“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.”
Costing a reported US$465 million for its first season alone, with a second season already in the works, The Rings of Power follows 23 series regulars during the lesser-known story of the Second Age of Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
25 million viewers is a whopping record – even beating HBO’s House of Dragon‘s 10 million viewers premiere – but unfortunately, the reviews haven’t been all too kind. The series appears to have been review bombed, a practice involving bad-faith users flooding intentionally negative reviews for a show or film.
As such, Amazon is reportedly putting a three-day delay on user reviews for all of its content, including The Rings of Power. Unfortunately, there’s only so much Amazon can do. Pausing user reviews on the platform may help, but haters can still leave reviews on third-party sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. Most of the negative reviews are backlash from people who take issue with the decision to cast actors of colour as dwarves, elves, harfoots and other folk of Tolkien’s fictional Middle-earth.
Currently, The Rings of Power has an 84% critic score and a 39% audience score. You can read our review here.