The world's most expensive TV series has set a new record for Amazon, but it is still not close to matching Netflix's biggest streaming successes.

Amazon's The Lord of the Rings series did not live up to the sky-high expectations. It launched to a lukewarm reception (Rotten Tomatoes), but Amazon says that season 1 is still its most popular original production to date.

- "Attracted more than 100 million viewers worldwide to the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, making it the most watched Amazon Original series in every region of the world, with more than 24 billion minutes streamed," Amazon announced it its Q4 2022 earnings report.


Almost matching The Witcher
Is that a lot? Well, yes it is, but Amazon still has some ground to cover before it can claim to match Netflix's most popular shows. As things stand right now, Stranger Things season 4 is the most popular streamed TV series.

HBO said that the first two episodes of The Last of Us average 21.3 million viewers while House of the Dragon season 1 averaged 29 million. However, this includes both streaming and linear TV so it is not directly comparable. HBO has not provided data for streamed minutes either.

Amazon has renewed The Rings of Power for a second season but has not announced a release date yet.

Netflix has over 230 million subscribers worldwide while Amazon has said that it has over 200 million Prime members, of which most have access to Prime Video – but don't necessarily use it.