Léo Ho Tep;28212829 said:
Harry Potter has more impact because it's a more important story. I'm sorry but that's the truth. It's about how one can use what he is deep inside to become a better person, and as such it's a real life lesson.
On the other hand, what does GoT, regardless of how entertaining it is, has to teach, apart from how to cut a hand or play violins to announce one's death? Nothing.
HP without question has had the bigger cultural impact. It was the closest thing our generation had to a Star Wars, when you take into account the hype each book and film had.
GOT however, has had a huge impact on TV and how to tell stories on television. First off, it's shown you can do a high budget fantasy series that will sell. Secondly, it's shown that you can have a show that routinely kills off popular main characters, and people will not only keep watching, but eat it up. It's also shown that we don't always have to do the "idealized" version of fantasy. GRRM is writing a fantasy story, yes, but he set it in a much more "realistic" (I hate using that word because of how much it's been thrown around since TDK came out) world. It's much more like the way an actual Medieval society would have been. It's not the first book to have done that, but it's the first one to gain popularity and expose that idea to the general public.
In terms of the story, HP's story wasn't "important." It wasn't anything new. It was another variation on the heroes journey tale. It was very well done, but it was a story we've seen time and time again. It was just very well written and the characters were developed and interesting. And the biggest factor was that Rowling really knew how to write kids, in a way that kids could relate to. I know, because I grew up almost exactly on pace with Harry. She was spot on.
But was the story more "important?" Heck no. It wasn't groundbreaking or revolutionary in the way that say, LOTR was (those books single-handedly changed the way people told fantasy stories). It was just a very well written story that blew up because Rowling understood how to write for children/young adults better than most writers ever have.
That doesn't take anything away from Harry Potter. I love the books, they're my favorite book series bar none, I've read each novel 10 times or more. But trying to say the story was more "important" is just silly. Neither GOT or HP have more "important" stories than the other.