It’s official, HBO’s “The Last of Us” has now surpassed its “Game of Thrones” spin-off “House of the Dragon” as HBO’s biggest series since ‘Thrones’.
Despite going up against the second hour of the Oscars, last night’s finale pulled in 8.2 million viewers Sunday night across HBO Max and linear telecasts – a new overnight rating high for the series. The 95th Academy Awards broadcast on ABC pulled in an average of 18.7 million viewers in fast overnight ratings.
The series has enjoyed consistently strong ratings during its nine-episode run, growing by nearly 75% from a 4.7 million viewer overnight rating for its premiere. It then steadily increased in viewership with almost every passing episode, hitting 7.5 million by the fourth and then 8.1 million by its eighth.
HBO has also indicated that the show is now averaging 30.4 million cross-platform viewers per episode since its January 15th premiere. That figure has pushed past “House of the Dragon” which averaged 29 million viewers on that front last year.
The series was officially renewed for a Season 2 by HBO in January and creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have confirmed to GQ that adapting “The Last of Us: Part II” game will take more than one season. Mazin says: “We will not say how many. But more than one is factually correct.”
It has also been revealed that actress Laura Bailey, who plays the key news character of Abby from the second game, had a cameo in the finale as one of the nurses in the operating room – but the showrunners refuse to say which one she plays.
Bella Ramsey, Pedro Pascal, Gabriel Luna and Rutina Wesley are likely all going to return for the new run which Pascal previously hinted could start filming before year’s end.
Source: THR
