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Netflix, Take Notes: HBO Spent a Mere $20 Million Per Episode on ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel

While Netflix and Amazon’s series budgets explode, HBO’s “House of the Dragon” is introducing a new tactic to the streaming and cable wars: Cost-cutting.

Seems like Westeros is going through a recession.

On Friday, Variety reported that HBO spent less than $20 million per episode to make the hotly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, which is set to begin on August 21 of this year.

The $20 million price tag per episode compares to Game of Thrones’ approximate total season cost of $100 million. When the show began in 2011, episodes cost around $6 million to make, with the number reaching $15 million by the final season in 2019. Considering the changes in the streaming landscape since the Thrones series finale and the quality of special effects necessary for a project of this caliber, $20 million is, somewhat unbelievably, being touted as… not that much money? The Variety article points to the price tag as a sign of production efficiency.

Indeed, compared to the staggering $465 million cost to produce the eight-episode first season of Amazon’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings spin-off, $20 million per episode begins to seem thrifty. Titled The Rings of Power, the new series premieres on Sept. 2 and will likely be something of a genre competitor to House of the Dragon.

The Variety report comes in the wake of news that Netflix shelled out a whopping $30 million per episode to produce the final season of Stranger Things, out this summer. While the number itself may not be eyebrow-raising for an ambitious, special-effects-laden show like the Duffer Brothers’ hit sci-fi series, it is a massive expenditure for a company in crisis.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the streaming giant actually lost subscribers for the first time in a decade—200,000 of them. The significant drop in users caused Netflix’s share price to plummet, down 35 percent on Thursday. It’s just the latest sign of struggle from the one-time leader in the streaming space, which has caught flak for canceling several beloved shows (RIP, The Baby-Sitters Club, you were perfect) and threatening to crack down on password sharing.

To paraphrase a certain popular, dragon-centric fantasy series, when you play the game of streaming, you win or you die.

Jordan Julian

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