It could be bad news for Prime Video’s deeply divisive Lord of the Rings spin-off series, The Rings of Power, if recent viewership figures are anything to go by. Luminate Data has now released the numbers from last year, and the hugely expensive The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is nowhere to be found in the top 10. A result which could spell bad times ahead for the series.

According to the date, Netflix took the top two spots with the Harlan Coben thriller series Fool Me Once (12.11B) and the period romantic drama Bridgerton (11.07B). Taylor Sheridan’s latest series Landman took third for Paramount+ (9.9B), while Netflix’s The Perfect Couple (8.83B) and Paramount+’s Tulsa King (8.47B) make up the rest of the top five. The remaining spots on the top TV show list went to Netflix series Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story with 8.16B views, the Netflix crime series The Gentlemen with 8.06B, Prime Video’s video game adaptation Fallout with 7.95B, Netflix’s Griselda with 7.59B, and the Netflix reality show Love Is Blind, which clocked in 7.38B views.

Not only does The Rings of Power not appear, according to Forbes’ Erik Kain, viewership dropped 60% between Seasons 1 and 2. Disney is also nowhere to be seen in the top 10 despite releasing several major Marvel shows such as Echo and Agatha All Along, as well as the Star Wars series The Acolyte. Luminate’s report offers further insight, highlighting the “diminishing returns” for some of the biggest franchises and streaming platforms.

“While franchises continue to be key drivers of engagement on streaming, 2024 saw diminishing returns for some of the biggest properties on television. Both 2024 live-action Marvel TV series, Echo and Agatha All Along, underperformed 2023 Marvel series Loki Season 2 and Secret Invasion. And the second season of Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power saw a 60% decrease in total minutes watched from the show’s first season.”

What Could This Mean for the Future of ‘The Rings of Power’?

So, what could this mean for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power going forward? At present, there are no plans to end the show, with Amazon Studios Boss Jennifer Salke saying (via Variety) last year that “there’s no debate about whether or not the show will continue.” However, she did also stipulate that the streamer will “continue to make the show as long as we see global customers loving it and watching it to the point where — it is a business. Obviously, we need a large amount of people showing up.” That 60% drop is sure to make a lot of people nervous.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history, and is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings“. Both seasons so far have been well-received by critics, with Seasons 1 and 2 achieving 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. But the show has proven divisive and, in stark contrast, Season 1 stands at just 38% while Season 2 achieved 59% among audiences on the Popcornmeter.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 is now in development, with filming expected to begin this year. For now, we will simply have to wait and see whether the series survives in this merciless world of streaming.