HBO’s “The Last of Us” continues to be a ratings juggernaut, with the viewership increasing steadily from week-to-week. The first episode debuted to 4.7 million day-one viewers, while the second episode rocketed up to 5.7 million day-one viewers. This past Sunday night’s beautifully heartbreaking third episode, we’ve learned, hit 6.4 million day-one viewers!
This number represents the Sunday night total between HBO and HBO Max, and Sunday night viewership only represents 20%-40% of a show’s total gross audience per episode.
For example, the first two episodes are averaging 21 million viewers in total!
For the sake of comparison, AMC’s “The Walking Dead” posted similar live viewer numbers in its debut season, with Season 1 viewership ranging from 4.71 million to a high of 5.97 million.
“The Last of Us” Season 2, in case you missed the news, has already been ordered.
HBO’s “The Last of Us” takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”) is starring in the series as Joel and Bella Ramsey (“Game of Thrones”) is playing Ellie. Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate) is playing Tommy, the brother of Pascal’s Joel. Storm Reid, Anna Torv, Jeffrey Pierce, Nick Offerman, Merle Dandridge, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett and Con O’Neil will also star in the series.
Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) developed the series for HBO, and worked directly alongside Neil Druckmann to write and executive produce the small screen adaptation.