Game Of Thrones Is No Longer The Best Show In Its Own Franchise (It Might Not Even Come 2nd)

Oct 18, 2026 - 16:16

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Game Of Thrones Is No Longer The Best Show In Its Own Franchise (It Might Not Even Come 2nd)

Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) smiling with her head bent in Game of Thrones season 3

Published Oct 18, 2026, 8:15 AM EDT

Liz Hersey is an Editor and Critic for ScreenRant's TV team, editing, reviewing, writing, and creating content about the iconic shows you love to watch. She began her editing career at ScreenRant in 2019, shortly after joining the site as a Writer that same year.

With a passion for all things books, Liz frequently attends Toronto literary events and conferences, and loves interacting with her book lover community. In addition to being an avid reader of the romance and thriller genres, Liz is a writer of several short stories, and is currently at work on a young adult witch novel.

When she's not working, reading, or writing, Liz can be found seeing movies at her local cinema, attending live jazz events, or curling up on the couch to binge her favorite TV shows.

You can reach her at [email protected].

Once upon a time, Game of Thrones was the greatest fantasy show in the television landscape. Based on George R.R. Martin's beloved A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, Game of Thrones was an instant success when it premiered on HBO in 2011. Not only did the show hit with fans of the books but also with audiences who didn't necessarily gravitate toward fantasy, as Game of Thrones' storylines were closer to prestige dramas like The Sopranos than they were to The Lord of the Rings.

The series continued to grow in acclaim and popularity throughout its run, with iconic scenes like the Red Wedding and the Battle of the Bastards dominating the pop culture conversation — even among people who didn't watch it. However, Game of Thrones hit a major stumbling block in season 6, when the show caught up to the novels and ran out of source material. Though the series ran for another two seasons, it suffered from a significant dip in quality, with Game of Thrones' eighth and final season largely considered the worst.

Game of Thrones' weak finale didn't diminish the show's legacy, though, nor fans' appetite for more small screen stories set in Westeros. Since the flagship series ended in 2019, HBO has released two spinoffs: the Targaryen prequel House of the Dragon, which aired its third season in summer 2026 and has been renewed for a fourth, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, based on Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, which premiered in early 2026 and has been renewed for a second season.

There are even more Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works, but one has already claimed the title of best show in the franchise over the OG series.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Has Overtaken Game Of Thrones As The Franchise's Best Show

Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell star in HBO's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

To be clear, Game of Thrones and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, while set in the same universe, are wildly different stories. Game of Thrones is a massive epic where every storyline is life-or-death, whereas A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is much more intimate and small-scale, and though Ser Dunk gets himself into plenty of trouble, the stakes are significantly lower for him than for the majority of the Game of Thrones characters.

There's no denying that Game of Thrones takes bigger risks, but several ultimately failed. Toward the end, the show became too sprawling, and some of the big, world-ending threats, like the Night King, were defeated in incredibly anticlimactic fashion.

In contrast, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 flawlessly accomplished what it set out to do, which is to tell the simple story of an underdog hedge knight and his young squire. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms prides itself on not being too big for its britches, juxtaposing with Game of Thrones in its hilariously scatological opening sequence. Furthermore, though the Tales of Dunk and Egg book series is technically not finished, the three novellas all tell complete stories, ensuring that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms won't run into the same trouble as Game of Thrones.

Is Game Of Thrones Even Second? Is House Of The Dragon Superior?

Rhaenyra with two dragons in House of the Dragon

While House of the Dragon has yet to commit any colossal blunders à la Game of Thrones season 8, it's too soon to tell whether the Targaryen prequel will ultimately become the superior series. This may seem like faulty logic, given that the same criteria wasn't applied to the similarly ongoing A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. However, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms could end right now, and the Game of Thrones spinoff would still have told a complete story, whereas House of the Dragon season 3 ended on a massive cliffhanger that must be resolved in season 4.

Technically, there's still opportunity for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to fumble, but that's where source material and scope come back into play. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 2 and beyond has complete, simple novellas to adapt, and the show doesn't seem interested in veering outside its lane.

On the other hand, House of the Dragon is based on Martin's Fire & Blood, a fictional history book, which is much harder to adapt than the Tales of Dunk and Egg stories. House of the Dragon is also closer in scope to Game of Thrones than A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and looks to be getting even bigger in season 4, opening the door for it to potentially fail. However, should House of the Dragon stick the landing in its fourth and final season, Game of Thrones could fall further down the power ranks of its own franchise.