UNITED STATES: HBO’s hit series “The Last of Us” closed out its first season with a bang, breaking its own viewership record with a total audience of 8.2 million for Episode 9.
The Last of Us continues its winning streak
The show’s impressive feat is even more significant considering that HBO released the finale during ABC’s telecast of the Oscars. The viewership numbers include those who watched the Sunday night airing on HBO’s cable channel and streams on HBO Max throughout the night.
According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the series’ first six episodes now averages 30.4 million viewers, including ongoing viewership past initial airings.
Episode 1 alone has reached nearly 40 million gross viewers in the weeks since its debut. The Last of Us has become the most-watched show in HBO Max’s history in Europe and Latin America.
The record-breaking finale isn’t the first time The Last of Us has outdone itself while competing with a major awards show. Episode 4 brought in 7.5 million viewers when it aired simultaneously at the Grammys, which was then a series high.
Although The Last of Us debuted with 4.7 million viewers, it quickly rose to become HBO’s second-most-watched premiere in over a decade.
Episode 2 marked HBO’s biggest-ever increase between a series’ first and second episodes, with 5.7 million viewers. The show’s Episode 3 then brought in 6.4 million viewers over the weekend of its release.
The most comparable series with regard to viewership has been House of the Dragon, which aired in 2022.
Although The Last of Us hasn’t yet outperformed House of the Dragon, the former has maintained a steeper week-to-week trajectory as compared to the latter.
The first season of the House of the Dragon averaged 29 million viewers, a number that counts continued viewership past initial airings.
With a 75% increase in viewership from the start of the season to the finale, The Last of Us scored an early renewal for a second season, which HBO announced when only the first two episodes of Season 1 had aired.
A third season is already likely in works as Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, the show’s creators, have expressed their intention to stretch the storylines of The Last of Us 2 video game into more than one season.
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