The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 already appears to be losing viewers after a single episode despite releasing the first three episodes at the same time.

Owain Arthur as Prince Durin IV and Sophia Nomvete as Disa n The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

The number of IMDb reviews for the first episode of Season 2 and the third episode decreased by over 50%. There are over 3,800 reviews for the first episode “Elven Kings Under the Sky.”

The second episode only has over 2,200 reviews and the third episode has just 1,800 reviews. Between the first and second episodes the number of reviews declined by 42%. Between the first and third its a 52% decline.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 IMDb scores by individual episode

The second season appears to be following the same trend as the first season. Kim Masters at The Hollywood Reporter shared back in April 2023 that 63% of people who watched part of the first season did not finish it.

She wrote, “While Amazon, like other streamers, provides only limited data — and internally, it held information even more closely than usual on the series — sources confirm that The Rings of Power had a 37 percent domestic completion rate (customers who watched the entire series).”

For those outside the United States, the completion rate was higher. Masters shared, “Overseas, it reached 45 percent. (A 50 percent completion rate would be a solid but not spectacular result, according to insiders).”

Charlie Vickers as Sauron and Morfydd Clark as Galadriel n The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

While not a 1:1 reflection to Masters’ numbers, the number of IMDb reviews for the first season declined by nearly 50% from the first episode to the eighth episode.

As of writing, the first episode has over 54,000 reviews while the eighth episode has just over 28,000. That’s a decline of 48%.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 IMDb scores by individual episode

Anecdotally, Gary Buechler aka Nerdrotic also indicated that people were already abandoning the second season.

He wrote on X, “There was about 32 people at our free ‘fully booked’ 2 episode screening for The Rings of Power and a dozen left after the first episode.”

The real test for the show will be whether or not it can best its first season numbers or even best Reacher Season 2, which saw its viewership numbers skyrocket and easily surpass The Rings of Power.

As noted by X user NowItsKnown, according to Nielsen, the show garnered 1.253 billion minutes watched during its two episode premiere back in 2022. In its second week, that number declined to 1.203 billion. It fell even further with the release of its fourth episode to 988 million minutes. It continued to decline in its fourth week to 966 million minutes.

The show rebounded with the release of its penultimate episode likely due to people attempting to binge watch the show. It brought in 988 million minutes. By the week of the release of the season finale it had recovered back to 1.137 billion minutes.

However, it won’t be a 1:1 comparison as Prime Video released three episodes for the show’s first week instead of two.

In theory this should see the minutes watched increased, but it’s very possible that number could decline given the fact that seemingly so many people tuned out of the show in the first season and do not appear to have returned to the show for the second season.

Charlie Vickers as Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios

What do you make of Rings of Power viewership numbers seemingly already declining for the second season?