The first season of “The Last of Us” has achieved a major success, with Episode 9 gaining an audience of 8.2 million people, breaking its own viewership record. This is a remarkable achievement, especially considering that the finale was released during the Oscars telecast. The audience figure is based on a combination of Nielsen ratings and first-party data from Warner Bros. Discovery, including both cable channel airing on HBO and streams on HBO Max throughout the night. The first six episodes of the series now average 30.4 million viewers, including ongoing viewership past initial airings.
In Europe and Latin America, It has become the most watched show in HBO Max’s history. This is not the first time that the series has outdone itself while competing with a major awards show. Episode 4 brought in 7.5 million viewers when it aired at the same time as the Grammys, which was then a series high.
The most comparable series in terms of viewership has been Season 1 of “House of the Dragon,” which aired in 2022. “The Last of Us” has not yet managed to outperform “House of the Dragon,” but it has managed a steeper week-to-week trajectory. “House of the Dragon” Season 1 averaged 29 million viewers, a number that counts continued viewership past initial airings.
Despite the fact that specific tallies for many of the episodes were unavailable, it is known that the viewership of “House of the Dragon” followed a more even path.
“The Last of Us” is the first screen adaptation of its source material, the PlayStation games of the same name. “House of the Dragon” had the advantage of serving as a prequel to “Game of Thrones,” HBO’s biggest hit of all time, while it is not based on an existing franchise.
“The Last of Us” has already been renewed for a second season, and a third season is also likely. Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have expressed their intention to stretch the storylines of the second “The Last of Us” video game into more than one season of television.
Source: Variety
