Following HBO’s second most-watched series premiere in more than a decade, The Last of Us now reaches an even larger audience and sets a new record for the pay-TV network.
As measured by Nielsen combined with first-party data from Warner Bros. Discovery, Episode 2 drew 5.7 million viewers across HBO linear airs and HBO Max streams, a 22% increase from a record-breaking 4.7 million last week, a number that Warner Bros. Discovery later reported had risen to 10 million after just two days of availability.
According to HBO, the jump from initial premiere viewership to Episode 2’s debut audience is the “largest Week 2 viewership growth for an HBO Original drama series in the history of the network.”
The network also offered another update on the series premiere viewership, stating that “after a full week of availability, Episode 1 now reaches 18 million viewers, nearly four times its premiere night audience.”
The instant popularity of The Last of Us is not surprising given that the drama series is an adaptation of the smash hit video game of the same name which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. The only comparable HBO series in recent memory is House of the Dragon, the sequel to Game of Thrones, which debuted in August 2022. Both series significantly surpassed the launch of both seasons of “Euphoria,” which became HBO’s second greatest series of all time after “Game of Thrones” in its second season in early 2022.
(By comparison, Season 2 of Euphoria premiered to 2.4 million viewers and grew to 6.6 million by the finale, although it should be noted that House of the Dragon and The Last of Us both missed the had advantage of debuting as parts of franchises with already established fan bases.)
HBO noted last week that “Sunday night viewership for an HBO series typically accounts for 20% to 40% of the show’s total gross audience per episode.” Therefore, expect The Last of Us Episode 2 titled Infected to hit 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 a oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon turns into a brutal, heartbreaking journey as both must traverse the United States and rely on each other for survival.
The Last of Us is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television. Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are writing the series and serving as executive producers along with Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan and Rose Lam. The original video game was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation platforms. PlayStation Productions and Naughty Dog are both producing the series along with Word Games and Mighty Mint.