after achieving it HBO’s second most-watched series premiere in over a decade“,”The last of usIt now reaches a larger audience and breaks a new record for the pay-TV channel.
According to measurements conducted by Nielsen combined with first party data from Discovery Warner BrothersEpisode 2 brought in 5.7 million viewers across linear broadcasts HBO and flows on HBO Max. That’s a 22% increase from last week’s record 4.7 million, a number Warner Bros. reported. Discovery later reported that it had already jumped to 10 million two days after it became available.
According to HBO, the jump from first viewing to episode 2’s first audience is “the largest second-week audience increase for an HBO original drama series in the network’s history.”
The network also offered another update regarding viewership for the series premiere, stating that “after a full week of availability, Episode 1 is now tracking 18 million viewers, nearly 4x more than its first night audience.”
The instant popularity of “The Last of Us” is unsurprising, since the drama series is an adaptation of the megahit video game of the same name that has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. The only comparable series on HBO in recent memory is “House of the Dragon,” the “Game of Thrones” series that debuted in August of 2022. Both series significantly outperformed the release of both seasons of “Euphoria,” which became the second HBO is the biggest series of all time after “Game of Thrones” during its second season in early 2022.
(For comparison, The second season of “Euphoria” premiered to 2.4 million viewers And It grew to 6.6 million By its end, though it should be noted that “House of the Dragon” and “The Last of Us” had the merit of debuting as parts of franchises with already established fan bases.)
HBO noted last week that “Sunday night viewership for HBO series typically accounts for 20%-40% of the show’s total audience per episode.” Therefore, The Last of Us episode 2, titled Infected, is expected to reach another milestone soon.
Set 20 years after the destruction of modern civilization, The Last of Us stars Pedro Pascal as Joel, a hardened survivor hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What begins with a small job quickly becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as both must traverse the United States and rely on each other to survive.
“The Last of Us” is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann write the series and serve as executive producers, along with Caroline Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan and Rose Lamm. The original video game was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation platforms. PlayStation Productions and Naughty Dog produce the series, along with Word Games and Mighty Mint.