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Game of Thrones (sometimes referred to as World of Westeros) is an American fantasy media franchise derived from the HBO television series of the same name, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and other related works by American author George R. R. Martin.

Several adaptations based on the stories, settings, and characters in the fictional universe have been made. The first television adaptation, Game of Thrones, which premiered in April 2011, holds the record for most Emmy Award wins for a scripted television series and for most Emmy nominations for a drama series. It also won a prestigious Peabody Award in 2011. The show set various viewership records domestically and internationally, with the final season averaging 46 million viewership across multiple platforms. HBO has acquired the television rights to the novels, with David Benioff and D. B. Weiss serving as the showrunners. Following the success of Game of Thrones and its conclusion in 2019, additional spin-off shows have been made. House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones and based on parts of Martin's 2018 book Fire & Blood, premiered in August 2022, with Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik serving as showrunners. In January 2026, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, another prequel series, based on Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novella series, premiered on HBO, with Ira Parker serving as the showrunner.

In 2026, Warner Bros. Pictures announced that a feature film covering "Aegon's Conquest", the first chapter in Fire & Blood, is currently in the works, with the working title Game of Thrones: Aegon's Conquest and set for release in June 2029. In the same year, a stage play titled Game of Thrones: The Mad King, presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company in partnership with Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, directed by Dominic Cooke.

Several instrumental soundtrack albums, composed by Ramin Djawadi, have been released for both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Fictional languages have also been created specifically for the show adaptations. American language creator David J. Peterson developed the Dothraki and Valyrian languages based on a few words and phrases written by Martin in his published novels.

Martin began writing the first volume of the novel series, A Game of Thrones, in 1991, and published it in 1996. Originally envisioning the series as a trilogy, Martin has released five out of seven planned volumes. The series has won multiple Locus Awards and a World Fantasy Award. It also earned multiple nominations for Hugo Award and Nebula Award. The fourth and fifth installments, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, reached the top of the New York Times Best Seller list in 2005 and 2011, respectively. A Song of Ice and Fire is among the best-selling book series of all time, with 100 million copies reportedly sold to date.

Television

Game of Thrones (2011–2019)

Game of Thrones is roughly based on the storylines of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series by George R. R. Martin, set in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and the continent of Essos. The series began development in January 2007. HBO acquired the television rights to the novels, with David Benioff and D. B. Weiss as the series' executive producers and Martin as a co-executive producer. The intention was for each novel to yield a season's worth of episodes. For filming, the show was shot in multiple countries: United Kingdom, Canada, Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, and Spain. Nina Gold and Robert Sterne were the series' primary casting directors. Through a process of auditions and readings, the main cast was assembled. The only exceptions were Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean, whom the writers wanted from the start; they were announced as joining the pilot in 2009. The series premiered on April 17, 2011. A critical and commercial success, it ran for eight seasons, concluding in 2019.

Game of Thrones was considered a ratings success for HBO throughout all eight seasons. The season five episode "The House of Black and White" was simulcasted in 173 countries, becoming the "largest TV drama telecast" according to Guinness World Records. It also pulled in an average of 46 million viewers across its eighth and final season in 2019, setting the record for the most-watched show on HBO. The show's success has been credited with an increase in the fantasy genre's popularity. The show's success led to the commissioning of several fantasy television series, including The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power by Amazon Studios. According to Neil Gaiman, whose novels Good Omens and American Gods were adapted for television, Game of Thrones helped to change attitudes towards fantasy on television, but mainly it made big budgets for fantasy series more acceptable.

Language creation

The books describe numerous languages spoken in the fictional world of A Song of Ice and Fire, among them are Dothraki and High Valyrian. For the show, HBO selected the American language creator, David J. Peterson, through a competition among conlangers. The producers gave Peterson a largely free hand in developing the languages based on only a few words of High Valyrian (valar morghulis, valar dohaeris, dracarys) and Dothraki (khalasar, khaleesi) written by Martin in his books. In 2014, Living Language released a conversational language course of Dothraki through a book and CD package accompanied with a companion mobile app and an expanded online version. High Vayrian, on the other hand, is offered as a free course on the popular language app, Duolingo.

House of the Dragon (2022–present)

In 2015, with Game of Thrones still in production, HBO executives approached Martin regarding possible successors or spin-offs to the series. In November 2018, Martin stated that a "potential spin-off series would be solidly based on material in Fire & Blood." Game of Thrones creators Benioff and Weiss stated they wanted to "move on" from the franchise and declined involvement in subsequent projects. By September 2019, a Game of Thrones prequel series from Martin and Condal that "tracks the beginning of the end for House Targaryen" was close to receiving a pilot order from HBO. In October 2019, House of the Dragon was given a straight-to-series order. Condal and Sapochnik, who won an Emmy Award for directing the episode "Battle of the Bastards", were selected to serve as showrunners.

House of the Dragon serves as a prequel to the television series Game of Thrones and is the second television series in the franchise. It is based on Martin's 2018 novel Fire & Blood. The series is set two hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones and chronicles the events leading up to the House Targaryen civil war, known as the "Dance of the Dragons", and the war itself. The first season of the series premiered in 2022 and consists of ten episodes.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2026–present)

In February 2013, Martin commented that he had been in discussions with HBO regarding a potential adaptation of his Dunk and Egg novellas. In March 2014, Martin expressed interest in adapting his Dunk and Egg stories for the screen, suggesting that they could serve as the basis for a film. In July 2015, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo remarked that there was "enormous storytelling to be mined" in a prequel to Game of Thrones. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series received an official order from HBO in April 2023. By then, Ira Parker, a writer on the first season of House of the Dragon, had already written the script for a pilot episode. The first season of the series premiered in 2026 and consisted of six episodes. Peter Claffey was cast as Ser Duncan the Tall and Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg.

Reception Critical response

Game of Thrones, particularly the first six seasons, received acclaim, although the show's frequent use of nudity and violence was criticized. The series has an overall rating of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 86 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim". Some critics and publications have called the show among the best HBO series of all time. Reviewers of the first season said the series had high production values, a fully realized world and compelling characters. According to Variety, "There may be no show more profitable to its network than Game of Thrones is to HBO. Fully produced by the pay cable and already a global phenomenon after only one season, the fantasy skein was a gamble that has paid off handsomely." According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series made a "strong case for being one of TV's best series"; its seriousness made it the only drama comparable to Mad Men or Breaking Bad. However, towards the final two seasons, due to lack of new material from the books, the series became less character-driven and more reliant on big twists and spectacle. These seasons, especially season eight, received more criticism. Season seven was praised for its action sequences and focused central characters, but received criticism for its pace and plot developments that were said to have "defied logic".

House of the Dragon received favorable reviews from most critics. On the review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 90% based on 873 reviews, with an average rating of 7.85/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Covering an era of tenuous peace with ferocious – albeit abbreviated – focus, House of the Dragon is an impressive prequel that exemplifies the court intrigue that distinguished its predecessor." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the first season received a score of 69 out of 100 based on 43 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Lorraine Ali of Los Angeles Times said, "The exchange between mother and daughter, and the artful contrast of dueling knights and dutiful midwives, are powerful enough on their own to render the first episode a smashing success and show that House of the Dragon has a depth of understanding of its female characters that GoT took years to find."

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms received widespread praise. The review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, reported a 94% approval rating, based on 176 critic reviews, with an average rating of 8.25/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a welcome return to Westeros that works better in the buddy-comedy arena rather than solely slaying its competition." Neil Amstrong of the BBC called the series "a total delight from start to finish", rating it five stars. He commended the leads' performances, writing that Claffey and Ansell were "brilliant" and had "extraordinary" chemistry". Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter praised the series' scale, calling it a "smaller, smarter, funnier and more charming glimpse into George R.R. Martin's bigger-is-better realm". Tasha Robinson of Polygon wrote that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was the "best path forward for the franchise", praising the "excellent character work and scene-setting".

Accolades

Game of Thrones has won numerous awards throughout its run, including 59 Emmy Awards, eight Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Peabody Award. It holds the record for total Emmy Award wins for a scripted television series and for most Emmy nominations for a drama series, with 161. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America listed Game of Thrones as the 40th best written series in television history. In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter placed it at number four on their best TV shows ever list, while in 2016 the series was placed seventh on Empire "The 50 best TV shows ever". The same year, Rolling Stone named it the twelfth "greatest TV Show of all time". In 2023, Variety ranked Game of Thrones No. 21 on its list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time.