If you haven’t yet started watching Lanterns, you’re falling behind on an emerging pop culture powerhouse. The DC Studios series that blends a True Detective-style mystery spanning different time periods with alien secrets and intergalactic villains has struck a chord with viewers, and its HBO Max ratings have increased with each new episode.
According to Variety, episode three, the flashback-heavy “OutKast,” notched an average of “10 million viewers globally and seven million viewers in the U.S. after three days of viewership, according to the network/streamer.”
Those are the best numbers yet for the show, “which continues to grow week-to-week since its series premiere on August 16. Also, per HBO Max, the show’s pilot episode has now attracted more than 20 million viewers worldwide.”
Lanterns already held the title of biggest DC Studios show launch on HBO Max (the other live-action titles on the list are Peacemaker and The Penguin), but now it’s also “among the top five series launches in the platform’s history.”
Lanterns still isn’t hitting House of the Dragon numbers; that show’s recent season three premiere reported 21.5 million global viewers in just its first three days, impressive even if that figure was less than the heights of House of the Dragon‘s first two seasons.
But, to use another Westeros-set example, shows on HBO increasing in viewership as the season goes on is an established trend: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms peaked with its finale, pulling in 9.5 million viewers in its first three days of availability, with an average of 13 million viewers per episode overall. Sometimes, you’ll see a premiere get a ton of views as people tune in out of curiosity, only to lose interest and stop following the series. Clearly, the opposite has happened here, as Lanterns has started to find its audience as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms did.
It’s worth noting that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was renewed for a second season even before its first installment arrived. Here’s hoping we’ll soon get similar news for Lanterns, something showrunner Chris Mundy has said he’s already planning for.
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