The first episode of House Of The Dragon, the immensely popular new Game of Thrones prequel series, is now available to watch for free on YouTube, courtesy of HBO and Sky – and yes, UK viewers can watch it too.
When the episode first launched on YouTube in the US, there were reportedly no geo-blocks at all, therefore anyone in the world could watch that version for free.
Shortly thereafter, however, the YouTube video was blocked to US viewers only, and UK viewers first had to watch with a VPN.
But then, Sky released the video on YouTube as well – for UK viewers – who can also now watch it for free (see full instructions below).
Coincidentally (well…), the free House Of The Dragon episode was released on YouTube right alongside the release of Amazon’s The Rings of Power premiere – a huge, costly fantasy series set in the world of Lord Of The Rings.
With The Rings of Power streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video, and House Of The Dragon streaming on HBO Max in the US (and Sky / NOW in the UK), there’s going to be an epic fantasy battle between the two competing shows and services.
House of The Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and is based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood book.
The series tells the story of House Targaryen, and chronicles the conquest that united the Seven Kingdoms under Targaryen rule through the Dance of the Dragons: the Targaryen civil war that nearly ended their dynasty forever.
House of The Dragon stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Fabien Frankel, and Rhys Ifans.
In the UK, House of The Dragon airs on Sky (in 4K/HDR) and on its streaming service NOW (only in Full HD).
How To Watch House Of The Dragon On YouTube In The UK
Since Sky also released the first episode for free, on YouTube – UK viewers don’t need any workarounds, and can simply watch it for free – on whichever streaming device they choose (that has a YouTube app).
However, since the video is age-restricted, you need to be logged in to YouTube in order to “prove” your age, so you do need a (free) Google/YouTube account.
Remember that the episode will most likely be available on YouTube for a limited time – and of course, don’t expect subsequent episodes to go up on YouTube for free.
If you want to watch the rest of the episodes (Episode 2 has been released so far, with Episode 3 coming on Monday, September 5), you can do so in the UK on Sky or NOW.
How To Watch House Of The Dragon On YouTube From Anywhere
The free episode of the series was first uploaded to YouTube by HBO Max, a streaming service which is only available in the US and several other countries (but not in the UK, yet).
Since THAT video is geo-blocked, viewers outside the US who try to watch it get an error message saying “The video is not available in your country”. If you use a VPN (Virtual Private Network), however, via an American server – you will be able to watch the video on YouTube from anywhere in the world.
Of course, a VPN is useful for several other functions as well – it protects your privacy, and it lets you watch quite a few American streaming services that are normally blocked in the UK – even free ones, as well as watch the American version of Netflix, which has a different library of content.
There are lots of VPN services out there, but the two we tend to recommend are:
- NordVPN, which is a giant, well-known service.
- AtlasVPN, which is excellent for streaming and is particularly affordable.
Note: The first version of this article only addressed the US version of the YouTube video. We then updated the article with the UK YouTube version.