One of the best problems to have as a Game of Thrones fan is that there’s now more content to watch than ever before. For years, if you wanted to experience the universe, you had exactly eight seasons of Game of Thrones and that was it. You could rewatch it endlessly, debate plot points in forums, and argue with people on the internet about who should have won the Iron Throne. But now that House of the Dragon is here and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is on the way, alongside the possibility of more spinoffs down the line, a new question has emerged: in what order should you actually watch all this stuff?
The answer isn’t as straightforward as you might think. Unlike Star Wars, where there’s a clear chronological order but fans widely recommend release order, the Game of Thrones universe offers two genuinely compelling viewing approaches, and which one you choose depends entirely on what kind of experience you want. Let’s break down both options and explore what each approach brings to the table.
The Case for Release Order: How the Story Was Actually Told
Release order is simple: Game of Thrones first, House of the Dragon second, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms when it becomes available. This is the order in which the creators intended for audiences to experience the stories, and there’s something valuable about honoring that intent.
When you watch Game of Thrones first, you’re experiencing the universe the way millions of viewers did starting in 2011. You don’t know about the Targaryen civil war. You don’t fully understand why dragons are such a big deal or why the people of Westeros are so obsessed with events that happened before the current story. As information about the past reveals itself through dialogue, flashbacks, and character memories, it feels mysterious and epic. You gradually piece together that there was once a dynasty so powerful it united an entire continent, and dragons were weapons so devastating that kingdoms fell. That slow discovery is genuinely compelling.
Moreover, watching Game of Thrones first gives the original series the primacy it deserves. Game of Thrones was a phenomenon that changed television. It made fantasy mainstream, it proved that complex, expensive serialized storytelling could find massive audiences, and it created a cultural moment unlike anything before it. The characters — Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister — are iconic because you meet them first. You invest in them, you root for them, and you’re devastated when they face setbacks. They’re the heart of the universe in a way that the characters of House of the Dragon simply aren’t, at least not yet.
There’s also a narrative advantage to release order that shouldn’t be dismissed. The original series is fundamentally a story about inheritance and legacy. It’s about what happens when powerful people die and nobody can agree on who should replace them. When you’ve watched Game of Thrones and you go back to House of the Dragon, every scene takes on a new weight because you know how it’s going to end. You know that the Targaryen dynasty will collapse. You know that dragons will disappear from the world. You watch the civil war and the infighting and you think, “This is why they fall. This is the beginning of the end.” That dramatic irony is incredibly satisfying.
Release order also means you don’t get bogged down in backstory before you understand why anything matters. If you watched House of the Dragon first, you’d be learning about a massive cast of characters, complex house dynamics, and civil war politics before you really understood what the stakes were or why any of it mattered to the larger world. Game of Thrones establishes what the world is like after all the chaos, and from there, you can look backward and understand how things got that way.
The Case for Chronological Order: Building the House Before Watching It Burn
But there’s also a compelling argument for chronological order, which would mean starting with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (once it’s available), moving through House of the Dragon, and finishing with Game of Thrones. This approach has some real advantages that shouldn’t be dismissed.
Chronological order lets you build your understanding of Westeros from the ground up. You start with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a smaller, more personal story about a hedge knight and his journey through a world still rich with magic and dragons. The Targaryen dynasty is at its height. The world feels alive and full of wonder. Then you move into House of the Dragon, where you see how that stable dynasty tears itself apart through succession disputes and civil war. By the time you get to Game of Thrones, you understand not just what the current conflicts are, but why everyone still cares so much about the past.
There’s also an argument that chronological order helps you appreciate the scope of the universe in a way release order doesn’t. Instead of jumping into the middle of a massive, complex political situation, you’re starting at the beginning of the Targaryen dynasty and watching it evolve, change, and ultimately collapse over centuries. You see how power works in this universe. You watch houses rise and fall. You understand the weight of history not as an abstract concept but as something real and tangible. Every betrayal in Game of Thrones resonates differently when you know the full history of houses and ancient grudges.
Chronological order also removes one significant advantage that release order has: the shock factor. When you watch Game of Thrones first without knowing the history, certain plot points hit harder because you don’t see them coming. But if you’re the kind of fan who prefers deep, complex understanding of a universe to shocking twists, chronological order might serve you better. You’re building a comprehensive picture of how the world works, understanding the long game that various houses are playing, and appreciating the writers’ careful long-term planning.
Furthermore, chronological order allows you to appreciate the craftsmanship of the different shows. House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, freed from being origin stories for Game of Thrones characters, can stand on their own. You can appreciate them as complete narratives rather than as prequels. The events of House of the Dragon matter because of what they accomplish within that story, not just because of what they lead to. That’s a different kind of satisfaction, and for some viewers, it might be more rewarding.
A Hybrid Approach: The Best of Both Worlds
Here’s where it gets interesting: you don’t have to choose one or the other. A hybrid approach could be particularly effective. Some viewers might want to experience Game of Thrones in its full entirety first, appreciate it as a standalone phenomenon, and then go back to House of the Dragon knowing where the story leads. This honors the show’s cultural importance while still allowing you to experience the prequels as meaningful narratives in their own right.
Others might prefer to start with House of the Dragon for a few episodes, then jump to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and use those stories to build a foundation of understanding before diving into Game of Thrones. The order matters less than finding the approach that works for your brain and your viewing preferences.
You could even argue for an interleaved approach where you jump between shows as they align chronologically within the story. Watch the first season of House of the Dragon, then jump back to Game of Thrones for some context about how the world has changed since the civil war, then jump forward to see where the Targaryen story goes. For completists and universe-builders, this kind of jumping around can actually create a richer understanding of how everything connects.
What Gets Lost and Gained in Each Approach
The honest truth is that both approaches require trade-offs. Release order means you don’t get the full historical context for Game of Thrones, but you get the intended viewing experience and the shock value of discovering the world organically. Chronological order means some of the mystery of Game of Thrones gets lost — you already know things that the characters are struggling to figure out — but you gain a comprehensive understanding of how the pieces fit together.
Release order prioritizes character and emotional impact. Game of Thrones is fundamentally the story of Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and the Lannisters. That’s what the show cares about. Everything else is context. Chronological order prioritizes world-building and mythology. House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are less concerned with specific characters as the vessels of story and more interested in how power moves through a world over centuries.
The Practical Reality
Here’s what’s probably going to happen for most viewers: you’ve already watched Game of Thrones. The original series aired from 2011 to 2019, and it was a massive cultural phenomenon. If you’re reading this article, you almost certainly watched it when it aired or shortly thereafter. So the question isn’t really “What should I watch first?” It’s “How should I rewatch or supplement my Game of Thrones experience with the new content?”
For that version of the question, release order wins by default. You watch House of the Dragon knowing full well what happens to the Targaryen dynasty. You experience the tragic irony of watching a family tear itself apart in a civil war, knowing that even if they’d unified, they’d still fall within a few centuries anyway. That’s genuinely powerful storytelling. Then you can go back and rewatch Game of Thrones with new appreciation for how the historical echoes shape every decision the characters make.
If you’re a completely new viewer to the universe in 2026 or beyond, you have the luxury of choosing. And honestly, either choice is defensible. Release order if you want the shock value and the original cultural experience. Chronological order if you want deep worldbuilding and comprehensive understanding. There’s no wrong answer here, just different paths through an incredibly rich universe.
Conclusion: The Luxury of Choice
What’s remarkable about the state of Game of Thrones as a multimedia franchise is that we get to have this conversation at all. For most of television history, you watched shows in the order they aired, and that was it. You didn’t get to strategize about how to experience a connected universe. You just watched what was in front of you.
Now we have the luxury of choice. We can pick the approach that aligns with our preferences as viewers, our schedules, and our appetite for different kinds of storytelling. Some of us will go chronological and build our understanding from the ground up. Some of us will stick with release order and appreciate the stories as they were meant to be revealed. And some of us will mix and match, jumping around and finding our own path through the world.
What matters is that there’s more Game of Thrones content than ever before, and whether you choose to experience it chronologically, in release order, or in some chaotic hybrid of your own design, you’re diving deeper into a universe that rewards that investment. The wheel keeps turning, and now we get to watch it spin from multiple angles at once. That’s genuinely exciting, and the order in which you spin it is entirely up to you.
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