It’s not at all shocking to say that last night’s “Game of Thrones” premiere had its biggest audience of all-time. The series has been off the air since 2017 and in that time, the fanbase for the HBO hit has done nothing but grow. However, the numbers of viewers last night is impressive in a number of ways, especially when you consider the streaming side of the equation.
According to HBO, last night’s episode, “Winterfell” had the highest number of viewers ever for the series at a record 17.4 million. That is up from the previous season’s premiere episode (16.1 million) and the season 7 finale (16.9 million). Yep, that means that in its 8th year, “Game of Thrones” grew by over 1 million viewers from the previous premiere. By any metric, that’s simply incredible.
As for streaming, HBO is reporting that last night was the most-streamed night in the history of the service, with growth of 50% compared to the last finale in 2017 and a whopping 97% when compared to the 7th season premiere. It would appear that more and more people are choosing to stream the series than watch on cable, which is lovely news for HBO, as it continues the quest to cut out the middle man (aka cable and satellite providers).
That being said, perhaps the best news of the night has little to do with the actual premiere, but more to do with the ripple effect that seems to have helped the other HBO original series that had episodes last night. The Emmy-winning comedies “Barry” and “Veep” both saw incredible increases, with the former seeing its biggest audience ever and the latter earning its best ratings since 2016.
“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” also saw a huge boost in ratings, as the news/political commentary series saw its largest audience since 2017.
Overall, the people at HBO are probably cracking open the champagne bottles today, as it would seem like the network is in for 5 more weeks of insane ratings and huge increases. All thanks to the silly show about zombies and dragons.
