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In news that should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, Game of Thrones has done it again. The HBO drama, returning to the air after a nearly two-year break, kicked off its final season on Sunday night with a new record audience.
The pay cabler cites a total 17.4 million viewers tuning in over the course of the night, besting the previous record by half a million viewers. That tally includes 11.8 million viewers watching the first-run telecast, and a 50 percent jump in viewers for the growing streaming platform of HBO Now.
These early numbers mean Game of Thrones may very well wrap its eight-season run on HBO with a consistent run of more viewers every season — with the seventh and most recent totally 32.8 million viewers per episode, once all views were factored in.
The return of Game of Thrones did quite a bit to boost the rest of the HBO’s Sunday night lineup, lifting Barry to a series high (2.2 million viewers) and seeing Veep (1.5 million) and Last Week Tonight (1.7 million) clime to night-of highs not seen in well over a year.
Below is a look at Game of Thrones‘ U.S. audience trajectory over the years.
Season | Initial airing viewers (millions) | Total viewers* (millions) | % of total from initial airing |
1 | 2.52 | 9.3 | 27.1% |
2 | 3.8 | 11.6 | 32.8% |
3 | 4.7 | 14.4 | 32.6% |
4 | 6.84 | 19.1 | 35.8% |
5 | 6.88 | 20.2 | 34.1% |
6 | 7.69 | 25.7 | 29.9% |
7 | 10.26 | 32.8 | 31.3% |
*Includes replays, DVR and on-demand viewing and streaming. Sources: Nielsen, HBO
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