The Last of Us HBO TV Show defied trends by once again beating its audience records. Where most TV shows tend to lose viewers as the season progresses, The Last of Us has managed to increase its viewership by 74% since its first episode.
Audience for The Last of Us TV show hits 8 million
The penultimate episode of TV show The Last of Us reached 8.1 million viewers last weekend, a record for the show according to Variety. While HBO had not released numbers for Episodes 5-7, Episode 4 managed to amass 7.5 million viewers and was the previous record holder. Considering the show debuted with 4.7 million viewers, this is also a 74% increase since the show debuted.
The Last of Us was HBO’s second biggest hit after House of the Dragon, which opened with 9.99 million viewers. However, this show never grew in viewership, remaining fairly steady and ending the season with 9.3 million viewers, with episode 2 being its peak. Another example is The Walking Dead, which peaked in 2014 with 17.29 million viewers for the first episode of season 5; this show ended its final season with approximately 1.4 million viewers.
The final episode of The Last of Us airs this weekend, but it’s expected to “massively” divide fans according to Ellie actress Bella Ramsey.