Amazon made The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power a global event, with the Prime Video series dropping its first two episodes on September 1 and 2 (depending on your time zone), and its first day was a major success.

Amazon has announced that more than 25 million global viewers watched The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on its first day, breaking all previous records and marking the biggest premiere in the history of Prime Video.

“It is somehow fitting that Tolkien’s stories — among the most popular of all time, and what many consider to be the true origin of the fantasy genre — have led us to this proud moment,” Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said in a statement. “I am so grateful to the Tolkien Estate — and to our showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, executive producer Lindsey Weber, cast and crew — for their tireless collaborative efforts and boundless creative energy. And it is the tens of millions of fans watching — clearly as passionate about Middle-earth as we are — who are our true measure of success.”

The Prime Video series will continue to roll out its first season weekly, on Thursdays and Fridays depending on the time zone, through the finale, dropping on October 14.

The series brings to screens for the first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. It is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and in an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and one of the greatest villains that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. The series begins in a time of relative peace and follows both familiar and new characters confronting the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. It also features kingdoms previously unseen, and the first two episodes have already introduced a mystery involving the identity of the Stranger.

J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay serve as showrunners and executive produce with Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado. Ron Ames and Christopher Newman are producers. Wayne Che Yip is co-executive producer and directs along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Thursdays, Prime Video