Viewership data shows Game of Thrones was the most popular TV series of the last decade

How do we assess the impact of a story – be it TV or film? Is there a yardstick, a standard? Most among us would agree that despite critical views and a good story told in a relatable way, eventually, the audience decides whether a story gets etched in the history of our culture or gets shunned out into oblivion. Many great stories might not have made a big footprint and many good stories may have become hugely successful. However sometimes, rarely though, the story and the reception both create a massive thump together.

In every case, viewers are the variable that decides the final outcome. Game of Thrones ran for almost a decade and what did it do in that span of 10 years? It doesn’t need telling that the series became the favorite for a large number of people. We are also sure that its storytelling and writing brought a new dimension to television. But this is all subjective, right? What does the data say? The data says exactly the same thing and more! A YouTube channel by the name, Data Is Beautiful, made a video showing us the timeline history for the most viewed TV series from 1986 to 2019. And the data is indeed beautiful for the fans of Game of Thrones.

There are three factors upon which the ranking of the TV shows is based: “prime-time first 24 hours audience reports; one week of reported statistics for downloaded copies (pirated); one week of streaming services viewership.” It seems quite comprehensive. First of all, even if you’re a Game of Thrones fan and are not interested in the stats starting from 1986, we would still recommend you to watch the whole video. It’s just an engaging visualization. Multiple shows competing with each other against time, trying to grab the top spot. It’s a good old fight. But if only the HBO blockbuster interests you, you can skip ahead to 2010s.

While the 90s were dominated by ER (Emergency Room), Seinfeld, and Friends, the 2000s brought Lost, CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) and NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) at the top rankings. All of them seem to be on par with each other till 2011 arrives. Game of Thrones just rips everyone apart. There is no TV series on the list that dominated as GoT did for almost the entire decade.

The 2010s belonged to the song of ice and fire, followed by The Big Bang Theory and NCIS. Only for a brief while in 2018 when there was no telecast did the show dip. And surely it came back up on number #1 with the final season in 2019. In the end, though, the HBO hit series was dethroned by NCIS. Perhaps the criticism for the last season and the fact that NCIS is still running in its seventeenth season didn’t help.

All said and done, Game of Thrones painted HBO on the TV landscape like never before. And its legacy will be carried on by its enduring literature and spin-offs. It has been almost a year since the show ended, yet the buzz still feels fresh with every bit of news about the Westerosi saga. Let’s hope the winds bring with them more, much more! What about you? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section.

The shock of the Game of Thrones ending was too much for some of the fans; who labeled it with tags like simplistic, rushed, and bizarre. The backlash was so much that a petition to remake the final season had started doing rounds; which surprisingly gathered about a million signatures. We cannot say that we were completely happy with the route that the last season took either; but yes, we were fine with the final position of most of the characters. Sadly, the Game of Thrones we’ve known for the entire last decade won’t come to us anymore. However, we could hope for more of Westeros in the upcoming prequel, House of the Dragon, and other spin-offs, if & when they happen.

But, a few fans of the series have been doing some pretty amazing edit work lately. More than a year after the finale of season 8, a fan called “Art of Ice and Fire” (@ArtofASOIAF) posted an alternate ending-edit on Twitter. It features the Night King and his ice-breathing Viserion right towards the end in King’s Landing.

This is the true ending of Game of Thrones. The Night King deserved better! pic.twitter.com/Bzn4DjfPMz

— Art of Ice and Fire (@ArtofASOIAF) May 14, 2020

We all remember how the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen went ‘Mad Queen’ over the largely innocent population of King’s Landing. Most of us could believe that the heinous act would well have suited the Night King; had he reached the capital city! Moreover, it serves the myth of the White Walkers much better than a curt pack up in the middle of the season. ArtofASOIAF gave us exactly that in his twelve-second clip, where Viserion is burning King’s Landing cold; while the Night King gets right behind Cersei through her chambers in the Red Keep. “The Night King deserved better!”, Art of Ice and Fire wrote, but we feel Cersei deserved better too. Though we’re not saying that dying in Jaime’s arms was any less, yet a final confrontation with the Night King would have been a great last note in her dark fate.

We can’t change what happened, but everyone’s free to imagine a different end to the wonder that was Game of Thrones. The author, George R.R. Martin has already hinted at a slightly different ending to the saga. We don’t know how it would take place but it’ll be in the last two books of A Song of Ice and Fire series. It’s all in the future, but it is coming, just as sure as Winter was!

What are your thoughts about the video edit? Tell us in the comments section.

It’s difficult to let go of Game of Thrones and everything that’s related to its crazy, lovely world. It’s been more than a year since the popular show ended but we still talk about it like it was just yesterday. So, there’s no doubt that we love imagining a bit of GoT in everything that we see. But there’s someone out there who has made this real for everyone. Jed Segovia, a YouTuber, has made a Game of Thrones-Tiger King crossover video; where the new fan-favorite documentary miniseries from Netflix has been mashed upon the introductory theme song of GoT. And people, including us, absolutely love it!

The video begins with the cast of “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness”; including Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, Bhagavan Antle, and others. While it tells us that the highly successful Netflix series was directed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, it also goes on to acknowledge the contributors and creators of Game of Thrones; Ramin Djawadi for his theme score, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for the HBO show, and George R.R. Martin for the basis of GoT in ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’.

But the detailing and beauty of the video lie in the amazing craftsmanship of replacing the strongholds of Westeros into the places in the world of Tiger King. Thus, the video fashions the world of the documentary miniseries by creating aspects like Greater Wynnewood Zoo, Big Cat Rescue, Grady County Jail, etc. instead of Westeros’ Winterfell, King’s Landing, or Dorne. Watch the concept art video of the mashup to further appreciate Jed’s work.

The creator, Jed – Angelo Segovia termed it a ‘quarantine project’ that took five weeks. “Netflix’s ‘Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness’ has been described as a ‘redneck Game of Thrones.’ So I made it,” he wrote in the description of the video. Jed is overwhelmed by the response to his ‘fan work’; the video has already received 108,000 views and 2000 likes.

Tiger King, a true story about the conservationists and collectors in the big cats’ society, has raged on during the coronavirus lockdowns. This video just puts a cherry over all the attention that the show’s been getting. We recommend it to everyone who has watched any of the two series. It will fill you up with nostalgia as a GoT fan and with excitement as a Tiger King lover. So, go ahead and give it a watch!

Tell us your thoughts about the video in the comments section below.