This week, Amazon finally revealed viewing numbers for the first four episodes of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 2 on Prime Video. This represents the first half of the season, with just four more episodes remaining.

According to Amazon, Season 2 has reached 40 million viewers in 11 days. But what this means exactly is a bit harder to say. As Variety reports: “It’s difficult to put the stat in full context, as Amazon has not defined how it quantifies its viewership; for example, 40 million could simply be the number of people who watched any portion of the available episodes.”

The publication notes that while we don’t have a clear definition of what a “viewer” actually means, we do have some comparisons to go by. Namely, Season 1 of Rings Of Power reached 25 million viewers in just one day, when just the first two episodes were released. Clearly this represents a massive decline in viewer numbers season-over-season.

That is not surprising given the recent reports from Luminate and Samba TV showing a massive decline in viewership in Season 2. Ratings fell throughout Season 1 as audiences peeled off in droves, and most of those who abandoned ship have clearly not returned.

It’s a shame. I was very much hoping that a big-budget live-action Middle-earth series would scratch that epic fantasy itch. Instead, the series was given to untested showrunners who clearly were in way over their heads. Whatever hopes I had that they would listen to criticism and come back with an improved second season were quickly dashed. Amazon is now sending good money after bad in this outrageously expensive vanity project.

For some added context, Amazon’s recent hit Fallout series—which was fantastic—hit 65 million viewers in 16 days. Still, Rings Of Power Season 2 remains one of Amazon’s biggest hits and one of the top 5 most viewed of Prime Video’s TV offerings. It just falls considerably short of Season 1.