8.2 million viewers – miscellaneous

“The Last of Us” concluded its first season with another triumph. With an audience of 8.2 million people by Episode 9, the series broke its own viewing record — a significant feat, considering the finale was released during ABC’s telecast of the Oscars.

A combination of Nielsen numbers and first-party data from Warner Bros. Discovery, that number represents those who tune in to cable channel HBO’s Sunday night broadcasts in addition to streams on HBO Max overnight. WBD also shared that the first six episodes of the series now average 30.4 million viewers, including the continuing viewership of the previous initial broadcast, with Episode 1 alone approaching a total of 40 million viewers in the weeks since its debut. In Europe and Latin America, “The Last of Us” has become the most watched show in HBO Max history.

This isn’t the first time “The Last of Us” has outdone itself while competing with a major award ceremony. Episode 4, titled “Please Hold My Hand,” brought in 7.5 million viewers when it aired at the same time as the Grammys, which was then a series high. (Preliminary Oscars rankings are expected later on Monday.)

When “The Last of Us” debuted in January, it trailed “House of the Dragon” to become the second most-watched premiere on HBO in over a decade with 4.7 million viewers. Episode 2 marked HBO’s biggest ever increase between the series’ first and second episodes with 5.7 million viewers. The show then brought in 6.4 million viewers with episode 3.

On Monday, WBD also released new audience data for Episodes 5-7 of “The Last of Us,” which was previously unavailable.

Episode 5 was watched by 11.6 million people, which, while impressive, diverse Don’t think of the High Series because of its unconventional launch. Because the episode’s originally scheduled airing on Sunday was set to coincide with the Super Bowl, HBO chose to release the episode on HBO Max two days early. Therefore, this number refers to viewership over the entire weekend of February 10-12, rather than one night. Episodes 6 and 7 were watched by 7.8 and 7.7 million people, respectively.

The most comparable series in terms of viewership was the first season of “House of the Dragon,” which aired in 2022. Although “The Last of Us” has so far not managed to outperform “House of the Dragon,” Dragon”, however, the former series managed a steeper weekly trajectory than the latter: Season 1’s “House of the Dragon” averaged 29 million viewers, a figure counting the continuing viewership of its previous initial broadcast.

Starting with 4.7 million viewers and ending with 8.2 million, “The Last of Us” viewership was up 75% throughout its first season. Conversely, “House of the Dragon” was watched by 9.99 million with Episode 1, 10.2 million with Episode 2 and 9.3 million by its end. (WBD has not released exact audience numbers for episodes 3 through 9.) That’s a 6.9% decrease. And while viewership for the “House of the Dragon” finale certainly took a hit from the fact that the episode leaked online two days before it aired, it’s almost impossible for it to have increased at the rate that The Last of Us did without the leak. Despite the fact that many specific calendars of episodes were not available, they are still known to have followed a more even path: diverse He was able to confirm that viewership for “House of the Dragon” was up 5% with Episode 4, 3% with Episode 5, and another 3% with Episode 6.

It should also be noted that “House of the Dragon” had the distinction of serving as a prequel to “Game of Thrones,” HBO’s biggest hit of all time, while “The Last of Us” is the first screen adaptation of its source material (the PlayStation games of the same name). ). Nor was “House of the Dragon” aired in competition with a major award ceremony.

“The Last of Us” scored an early renewal for Season 2, which was announced when only the first two episodes of Season 1 had aired. And given the success of the series, a third season is already looking likely: Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann on Monday expressed their intention to expand the story of the second video game, “The Last of Us,” to more than one season. from the TV.

is reading diverseA closing interview with Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the video games, and a final interview with production designer John Pineau.