Hopefully you’ve had a chance to catch up on the latest episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, because it’s just about all anyone’s been talking about since Sunday night. And with good reason. Not only did the super-sized episode have a lot of ground to cover, with a massive battle sequence at its core, it also had a record number of people tuning in to watch it, either live or mere hours after it aired. How many people, exactly? On the order of 17.8 million.
THR has a breakdown of the superlatives for “The Long Night”:
At 82 minutes, it’s the series’ longest episode yet
17.8 million tuned in to watch, either live, on replays, or streaming
The season premiere just two weeks earlier netted 17.4 million
12.02 million people caught the episode during its on-air debut, a series’ second-best, following the Season 7 finale’s tally of 12.07 million
The Season 8 premiere now counts a total of 27.7 million, with HBO saying that 38 million have viewed it
HBO also touts Season 7’s average viewership of 32.8 million across all platforms, making it the network’s most-watched series and TV’s biggest scripted series
7.8 million Tweets about “The Long Night” are the most ever for a scripted series, according to Twitter
As far as trends go, live initial viewer numbers tend to go from roughly two-thirds of an episode’s total to about half, but that’s banking on the show’s history over the course of the last seven seasons. With this being a final, shortened season, one wonders just how much the viewing numbers will shift. But you can expect a massive amount of tune-in for the series’ finale on May 19th, if only to avoid FOMO.
For much more on all things Game of Thrones, be sure to get caught up with our recent write-ups, linked below. And, as always, stay tuned to our continuing coverage!
