‘GoT’ fans end ‘Breaking Bad’s’ 13-year perfect IMDb run

For nearly 13 years, one episode stood alone at the summit of IMDb’s television rankings: “Ozymandias”, the penultimate stretch of “Breaking Bad’s” final season. Long hailed as a flawless hour of television, it carried a rare and symbolic 10/10 user rating — untouched since it first aired in 2013.

This week, that streak ended.

The episode’s score slipped to 9.9, marking the first time in over a decade that it has fallen short of perfection. And the timing has fuelled speculation of an online fan clash rather than a sudden reassessment of its quality.

The trigger appears to be Episode 5 of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel based on George R R Martin’s novellas. Titled “In the Name of the Mother”, the episode briefly achieved a perfect 10/10 rating on IMDb after its 15 February premiere — becoming only the second television episode ever to match “Ozymandias” at that milestone.

Set nearly a century before the events of “Game of Thrones”, the new series has drawn strong critical and audience praise. But soon after its episode touched the coveted score, its rating began to dip — first to 9.8, then to 9.7. Supporters of the show alleged coordinated downvoting from “Breaking Bad” loyalists keen to protect the legacy of their beloved episode.

What followed appears to have been retaliation.

Fans of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” reportedly rallied online, urging others to downvote “Ozymandias”. The impact was swift. The once-untouchable episode saw a surge in one-star votes, pushing its rating down to 9.9. At the time of writing, it holds more than 339,000 ratings, including tens of thousands of one-star submissions — many believed to be recent.

While IMDb uses a weighted formula rather than a simple average, the symbolic fall from a perfect 10 remains significant. For over a decade, “Ozymandias” — directed by Rian Johnson and starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul — has frequently been cited as one of the greatest episodes in television history.

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Meanwhile, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”, created by Ira Parker, continues to build momentum. The series follows hedge knight Dunk (played by Peter Claffey) and his unlikely young squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), secretly Prince Aegon Targaryen in disguise. Its first-season finale is set to stream this weekend.

Whether the ratings turbulence settles remains to be seen. But for now, a 13-year reign at perfection has ended — not with a creative misstep, but with a digital duel between two fiercely devoted fandoms.