A turf war has broken out between the fandoms of Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones over the highest-rated episode spot on IMDb.
Released last month, the Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, set a century before the events of the HBO drama, has garnered much praise. A Guardian reviewer said it has “saved the Game of Thrones universe.”
Fans appear to agree, as the fifth episode, In the Name of the Mother, which aired February 15, briefly secured a rare 10/10 rating on IMDb. Unfortunately for fans, it didn’t last long.
For over a decade, “Ozymandias”—the 14th episode of the fifth and final season of Breaking Bad, and the climax of the series—had been the only television episode to secure a perfect 10 rating on IMDb. It’s an accolade fans weren’t prepared to give up lightly.
Taking matters into their own hands, according to reports across Reddit and X, fans of the crime drama started review-bombing the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode with one-star ratings to tank its score.
One IMDb reviewer admitted as much, writing, “I like this episode. I like this show overall. Hell, I love this episode. But… its not 1% as good as the episode mentioned in the title of this review is. I therefore decide the leave this one star review in order to defend the number one episode.”
What followed was an all-out review-bombing war between the two fandoms. On the IMDb review page for “Ozymandias,” a slew of reviews titled “The Lannisters Send Their Regards” or “Winter came for Breaking Bad! The North remembers” started appearing.
Meanwhile, of the hundreds of one-star reviews A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has accumulated on IMDb so far, many hit back “in the name of walter white” or “For Heisenberg.”
For the first time in 13 years, the Breaking Bad episode lost its perfect score on the site. At the time of writing, neither episode is in the top 10 list on the platform—or even the top 100.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, now with an average score of 9.5, sits at number 519 on the best TV episode ranking. “Ozymandias,” now with an average score of 9.6, has dropped to number 461.
The only winner here? Six Feet Under, which has now slipped into the top spot.
