'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' sets Amazon Prime ratings record

The two-episode premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power drew 25 million viewers worldwide in 24 hours, making it the biggest debut ever of Prime Video, Amazon said in a press release. "It's somehow fitting that Tolkien's stories - some of the most popular of all time, and what many consider to be the true origin of the fantasy genre - have led us to this proud moment," said Jennifer Salke, Director of Amazon Studios.

There was a lot at stake for the series, with a reported budget of $465 million for the first season and stiff competition from rival HBO series House of Dragons. The latter also recently debuted with the highest ratings in HBO history with 9.986 million viewers on its linear HBO and HBO Max streaming platforms.

Amazon also took the unusual step of delaying The Rings of Power reviews by 72 hours to filter out trolls, Variety reported. It appears to have been "bombarded" on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, where it received a 37% rating from users but an 84% rating from critics. The series faced trolling over its decision to cast actors of color like elves, dwarves, and other characters.

The studio plans to evaluate each review to determine if it is legit or created by a bot or troll. Amazon first introduced this practice when the baseball series A League Of Their Own debuted on August 12. This strategy appears to have worked, with the latter earning a 4.3 out of 5 star rating on Prime Video, compared to a 94% critical rating for Rotten Tomatoes (however, this also closely matches the 85% Audience Score on RT) .

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