‘Game of Thrones’ has come to an end and love or hate it, the show has broken HBO‘s previous viewing records. “The Iron Throne” ended the series which fans have loved and hated over the years and had 13.6 million viewers in linear viewership. This not only was up from the 12.5 million viewers of the fifth episode of the season but also unseated ‘The Sopranos’ Season 4 opener which was HBO’s previous most-watched telecast of all time at 13.4 million viewers. I wouldn’t expect anyone else to take the crown soon.
While liner viewership was at 13.6 million viewers, when you factor in HBO GO and HBO NOW, the count rises to 19.3 million viewers. This unseats Episode 5 as the previous series high of 18.4 million views across all platforms.
The breakdown of the final season viewership is below:
- Episode 1/final season premiere: 17.4 million (11.8 million for linear)
- Episode 2: 15.9 million (10.3 million linear)
- Episode 3 (ft. The Battle of Winterfell): 17.8 million (12.07 million linear)
- Episode 4 (ft. battle aftermath, much drinking): 17.2 million (11.8 million linear)
- Episode 5 (ft. Dany’s fiery tirade): 18.4 million (12.5 million linear)
- Episode 6/series finale: 19.3 million (13.6 million linear)
The average per episode gross audience is at 44.2 million viewers per episode which is up more than 10 million from the seventh season.
Love or hate how the show ended, you can’t argue that it won’t be bending the knee to another series anytime in the near future. The series has long claimed that “when you play the ‘Game of Thrones,’ you win or you die” and I feel HBO will likely fall into both of these categories. They’ve absolutely won on awards, viewership, and accolades but it is hard to imagine that they’ll be able to keep their subscription levels where they currently are now that their flagship series has come to an end.
While “a lion does not concern himself with the opinion of sheep” you have to hope that HBO is concerning itself with losing viewers and that their upcoming catalog of television from ‘Watchmen‘ to ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoffs and beyond will have audiences not running off beyond the wall of their premium channel.
Will you be keeping HBO now that ‘Game of Thrones’ has come to an end? Is there enough other shows that have caught your interest or will the network now be “a page in someone else’s history book”? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: TV Line
