Game of Thrones broke its own records time and time again this season, so it was inevitable, but it’s welcome news nonetheless: the season finale “The Dragon and the Wolf” has broken all GoT’s previous viewership number records, achieving a series high.
Deadline reports that last night, Game of Thrones drew in 12.1 million viewers for the finale. Episode 5, “Eastwatch,” held the previous record with 10.72 million viewers watching the initial airing of the new episode. With no leak to tamper with this week’s episode, Game of Thrones easily smashed those numbers.
Here at the Wall, many fans were anticipating that the finale would break all Thrones records and they were right! With Targaryen reveals, an incestuous coupling, an incestuous breakup, a long-overdue execution, and a mighty Wall coming a’tumbling down, it’s not even a surprise- Game of Thrones is unstoppable.
Hodor!
At this rate, is it too optimistic to expect 20 million for the series finale?!
15 millions next season.
15 Million for the series finale?
The true number for this season is 30 Million. That is how many people are watching each episode when everything is taken into account. That is almost 10% of the US population.
If leaks are kept in check next year, I mean when whole episodes are leaked…. Then it will create new records…
Don’t know how much time we have to wait for the end of this long night…
And now my watch begins…
Not many shows peak in their 7th season
Yes. They aren’t going to gain 8 million.
Most appropriate picture. I dig.
Really glad to see that despite the story and episode leaks, the show remains as unstoppable as ever. 🙂
And in S1 average was 2.52.
LOL
And that 12.1 million I presume was just for the USA/Canada? Add to that viewers in Europe and in other parts of the world, the grand total is probably two or three times that number… A remarkable achievement to say the least.
Superb episode, superb viewership numbers. And no plateau in sight. Hell yes!
I’ll be very eager to see what the total viewership is for the season once those numbers arrive. If I recall correctly, there were reports several weeks ago that the season premiere had topped 30 million viewers across all platforms in North America alone. I expect that the final accounting will push that total even higher.
So the Season averaged 10.26 million. Last season averaged 7.69
Episode leaks get a lot of press but have almost no material impact anything.
Jack Bauer 24,
Well I dunno, the viewership has grown exponentially lately. The average only (10.25 million / episode) compared to last season (7.69 million / episode)… We are talking about one of the greatest and most popular shows ever, it wouldn’t surprise me to have 13-15 million per episode for S8 and a drastically higher viewership for the finale. Don’t know how good of an example it is, but the finale of Friends was seen by waaay more people than the average episode. We’ll have to wait and see I guess 🙂
I’m watching each episode once more on my DVR and then cancelling HBO until Westworld comes back. I’m sure I am not the only one.
This show has just been truly amazing. I have never enjoyed a television show this much. This rivals Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. It might even be better.
I watched the first ever episode during a free preview week. I binge watched the first season and started with season 2 live each week. Compared to the audience size now, I guess that is still close to one of the first.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
Smartest post you’ve made yet 🙂
What is still close to one of the first?
I honestly thought that the viewership numbers would be down this week due to Music awards and hurricane in Texas
Holy moly – and seven seasons in. Thrones is the gift that keeps on giving!
A M A Z I N G N E W S! This episode was a spot-on for me and I’m so happy S7 has such a sucess overall.
Ratings are all about bragging rights, so I don’t particularly care about it, but it’s a nice reward for all of the hard work and effort that the cast and crew put into the show.
Great stuff
Smashed through the 11 million and into the 12’s – heading to the Stratosphere!
This should be helpful in getting the mega budget required for the Season 8 World War Z in Westeros
So happy for them, didn’t expect 12. I hope with this success HBO grants them a bigger budget so we can finally see some direwolf action
GoT has overtaken TWD in ratings. TWD S7 finale had 11.31 million. Remarkable considering AMC is on cable and not a premium channel.
Holy shit that’s huge. Wonder what comes after TWD.
Yeah, there’s history for top rated, popular programs to have massive numbers for the final episode. Friends last episode was nearly 2.5 times the average of the final season. That could translate to something like 25+ million for Thrones. It isn’t on network tv though so it’s a lot to expect a jump like that. Sopranos for example was teetering around 7 million during their final season and then got 8 mil for the penultimate episode and 11.9 for the finale. I’d expect a jump something more in line with that; average around 11 mil for the season and get maybe 15 million for the finale first airing. There are all of those methods for viewers to watch compared to either of those shows that aren’t reflected in the initial airing Nielsen number. The all-platforms number could very well end up massive…
Does that make GOT officially the most watched television show of all time?
I love this graph of the series viewership numbers.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/6f10da16295bc50cb993754413b3d1a8.png
I’m 100% sure they’ll have Direwolf action next season. They have more time to work on it’s well since GoT won’t be back till 2019. Obviously they have heavy set stuff coming too but that should allow them to work with the CGI a lot longer. CGI usually requires a good 8 months or longer to clean it up nicely
Which is why some movies take a long time to make
HBO executives need to take heed of this.
People don’t turn to premium cable to get sexual content and nudity anymore, in the age of smartphones all that stuff is a finger click away, so there is no longer any appeal for it when we turn to premium television.
With shows like Vinyl and now Vinyl 2.0 (The Deuce) I don’t think the out of touch HBO executives understand this. No one cares about sleaze anymore!
What we want is an escape from the reality we live in. With all the political stress we get everyday, we need this escape now more then ever.
This is why GoT is a hit, not because the violence and nudity, it is a hit because it is a beautiful escape from the reality we live in. A highly detailed fantasy drama that has so many different in-depth characters you are bound to like one. It also has a little bit of high fantasy to satisfy everyone’s inner child and allows for beautiful epic scenes with battles and dragons. Which is even a greater escape.
Please HBO, I do not want to see anymore sleaze, The Deuce well flop, just like Vinyl.
People want time period pieces with wonderful characters, and if the premium cable company has the money and know how, like HBO does, we would like some amazing fantasy elements to give us goosebumps.
HBO has about two years to bring us a good spin-off. HBO already has the GoT fan-base and they know we will tune in to watch if they deliver something on par with GoT.
So enough with the T&A and porn industry stuff and bring us some more damn epics please! We all support you with subscriptions and we buy the damn bluray just to give you our money so you continue to make these epics.
You want ratings like this, you have to earn it with a high quality production that costs a lot of money, but the return on this investment pays for itself doesn’t it, one would think GoT has taught you this.
Please HBO bring us more epics like only you can. You proved to be the best damn television station ever and you flex your muscles every time an episode of GoT airs
Why can’t we have 2 or 3 of these epics a year?
Increase the monthly fee buy 5 bucks, just bring us more damn epics…
Haha, okay rant over!
Well, that’s good: I had worried that the reaction to Episode 6 might actually hurt the ratings!
Only if it’s relevant to the story or at least to the plot! Thus far, it’s not obvious how it would have been. At any rate, it still won’t look good: all they can do is take dog images and inflate them with CGI; that’s why Nymmeria and Ghost look so “fuzzy” compared to (say) dragons and giants.
Can’t wait to hear the negative spin on this. Anyone?
Arthur,
How about Westworld? 😉 If you haven’t seen that, you really should.
Arthur,
From all reviews that I’ve read, even though the subject matter of The Deuce may be lurid, the creative team here seems to have gone out of its way to avoid making the show exploitative or sleazy. I think David Simon’s track record kind of speaks for itself in that regard.
Dutch Maester,
I watched it, it was okay.
I like it but I think it really fell apart and made very little sense during the last episode.
It is like they didn’t think of a way to end it and decided that that main Robot Dorothy or whatever would just murder all the humans on the board.
But if that happened, those human citizens government would get the military and go down there to Westerworld and annihilate them. The End.
Good show, great actors but the last episode bothered me.
I had a lot of issues streaming HBO now Sunday night. Anyone else had issues?
RBloodworth,
I will watch ‘The Deuce’ with an open mind but from all the trailers they shove down our throat right before GoT it looks pretty lame.
Its like HBO writers just look for an excuse to add sexual content and one of them had a bright idea:
“Lets do a show about how the porn industry started! That would give us easy ways to add in sexual content, genius!”
I just want HBO executives, who are probably all old vets of the industry ages 60 and up to know that sexual content is no longer a selling point for premium television. If anyone wants to see sexual content they take out their phone. We don’t change the channel to HBO for T&A. We change the channel to HBO to see shows that are on par with Hollywood big budget movie quality. If there is sexual content needed to solidify the characters or drive the plot home so be it. But that is not why myself or people I know watch.
I’ve been watching it recently. On episode 6 so far. I like it but I don’t. I don’t know how to feel about it yet. It’s confusing for sure and I know we don’t get all the answers right away but every time I get more confused then the last episode.
I don’t really like any of the characters so far besides Dolores and I forgot her name already… The one that works in the saloon/brothel?
Hoping there’s so great payoff end of season 1
The Bastard,
That’s just how many watch legally. There are many Americans watching illegally.
I realize every day that there are new comers to the show during and off season. It seems like it must have plateaued by now but now. I think there are still more room for new viewers by the time s8 is launched.
Arthur,
I agree that people like escapism and that high concept shows will get more buzz and are more likely to be hits. However I don’t think nudity or “sleaze” is relevant. GoT became a huge hit featuring plenty of that type of content. No show will become a hit because of that content but I do believe it has it’s appeal. I know I enjoy some sexy stuff in the entertainment I watch.
King Podrick,
Westworld has a pretty good ending but overall I thought it was underwhelming. I liked the pilot but was losing interest throughout the rest of the season. It is a very cool concept but lacks engaging characters.
Very much agreed.
Anyone has reliable budget data for this season?
Season 6 was told to cost 100 million (10 per episode)
With all that dragons and WW’s i
n this season…
With record breaking ratings like this I’m sure HBO will be throwing more money like never before!! Awesome!! Just keep quality dialogue please
Entertainment Weekly says the true number will end up being around 31 million.
Clob,
Yep. I couldn’t finish the first season. I keep thinking I’ll go back to it, but I just….don’t want to.
Arthur,
I watched The Deuce pilot HBO posted and really liked it. Not at all like the ads. It’s very much in the vein of David Simon’s other works, very much about a time and place, and people unseen by the world trying to survive in a system they feel powerless in. HBO is doing the show a disservice by making it seem like a “Vinyl” retread.
Vinyl cost HBO over 100 mil so I doubt S6 cost less.
I don’t know….Breaking Bad went from 6.58 million in this second to last episode to 10.28 million in the finale which is a pretty huge jump percentage-wise.
I know it’s not a super great comparison, Breaking Bad was on cable and it’s last season growth was just super insane.
But, the last season of GoT will get soooo much press and will be such a huge event, that I could potential see it get to 20 mil
Do we know for sure its 2019?
That’s so depressing.
Wimsey,
Yeah they were fuzzy compared to the dragons, but hopefully with more time they make it better? direwolves just have to play a part in the end game.
Hi guys,
such great work you all do, I love this site ❤️
Quick question: have the release dates for the DVD/Blue Ray been announced yet?
All the best,
Nickolai from Bulgaria
Woohoo! Congrats, GOT! There are still a lot of people I know who are just starting to discover this show (still on the 1st 3 seasons). I have a feeling season 8 will break the show’s records again. I believe no show has grown this much going into its 8th season.
That’s amazing news, rarely does shows reach their peak this late in the game. It’s proof how well established the franchise’s world and story was, and it knows where it’s going.
Episode 5 and 6 were somewhat underwhelming for me with how rushed and illogical the scenes were at times, which made me worry about this finale before it aired.
It ended up to be the strongest episode of the season in my book, and it made the season redeem itself from some of the flaws it had. I’m glad this episode didn’t disappoint and now, like always,
Exactly so!! There are more than enough dedicated fans of the show all over the world!! I’m so happy about the ratings: well deserved, for this amazing show!! I hope it breaks all records next season!
Game of Thrones keeps breaking their own records. AMAZING. Biggest TV show of all time! Claps and Claps. Imagine how the series finale will be! wow!!
This is so amazing. I love you, GoT
Finally got to watch the finale last night so unfortunately, and it killed me, I didn’t get to be one of the many you watched it while it aired:(
If you mean “taking the time to do it right,” then that is not the issue: the CGI code to do fur well simply does not exist yet. Scales, skin and even feathers are much, much easier to model realistically on computers than is fur. Given that they are writing the scripts now and cannot anticipate the programming breakthroughs to magically appear before they need them, I would not expect it.
As for the direwolves being important in the end, I just am not sure that they have to be. Yes, they did bring back Nymmeria, and I would like to think that was a hung gun: but to what end? Given the near absence of Ghost in the last two years, it seems almost too late to make them important now. They’ve basically been a symbol for the Starks, but unlike the Targaryen’s dragons, they have not figured in the plot since Bran was traveling north with Summer. The same is true in the books, really, although it’s possible that the direwolves will figure more prominently in the plots and/or stories in Winter or Spring. GRRM himself has stated that you don’t hang a big wolfpack on a Wall without firing it in reference to Nymmeria. However, GRRM also included a lot of stuff in the last two books that were not germane to the story or even the plot, and it’s quite possible that the big Nymmeria firing will be another example of that.
Nickolai Todorov,
Hi Nickolai I was told today that series 7 will be available on Amazon from 11th December however this is the UK so not sure for rest of Europe or North America etc. Hope that helps
Carole H,
Thanks Carole, I’m also in the UK and was wondering when the Blu-Ray set will be out, I can ask the wife to purchase it for Christmas now:-D