Good news once more, the viewership of the initial airing remain high this week as well, just slightly topping last week’s mark – 7.89 million people saw the first run of the powerful mid-season Game of Thrones episode on Sunday. For those keeping track, the demo rating reached was 4.0, which nothing to sneeze at either.
With that, Game of Thrones was again easily the most watched programme of the night. I really like the consistency we see in the numbers this season. The first five episodes last year were seen by 6.98 million people on average during the initial airing, while this year the average stands at 7.64.
In the meanwhile, delayed views have been contributing heavily to Game of Thrones total tally. Last weeks episode has seen the biggest increase so far this season, adding more than two million views in just three days after the premiere, for a total of over 10 million views. Once more I repeat for the record that I am really looking forward to learning the consolidated averages over all platforms.
We’ll miss you Hodor.
Wasn’t the show supposed to die, after how ”horrible” season 5 was?
EDIT: Also. Hodor……Rest in piece soft giant.
Even with the leak? This is very, very impressive.
Jack Bauer 24,
It’s really good to see the numbers, not only staying about the same, but even increasing.
And it’s only EP5!! We will break the record, by the end of the season.
Episode 9 and 10 might be close to or over 10 million viewers.
HOLD THE DOOR!
HODOR!
VegoDread,
How did you ”hodor” before me?
When I posted my comment only mine showed up…
We all know drop this wk though due to mem wknd.
No shock there! Anyways, pumped for next weeks episode (as usual) Can’t wait to see Randyll Tarly!! And I am 100% sure that Benjen will make a return as well.
HYPE.
Mihnea,
Would u please check out my to post on princess promised this morning
I think I’ve cracked it but can’t get any feedback. Early spoils always at the.bottom.
I think I liked 4 better than 5…but probably 5 more than 3.
No sand snakes again and the episodes are fantastic without. I asked before for good story lines for them to reappear but I haven’t heard any that would make me want another story line to get screen time cut.
Jack Bauer 24,
Oh yeah. And how did it feel to finally see the Night King this season? Did you notice him smiling while he was walking toward the cave as well?
He is cold. Literally lmao.
rhymeswithweak,
Them appearing wouldn’t mean another story gets cut.
Also what’s with this thing of bringing them up in entirely unrelated threads…
I posted some speculation on their stories however, if anyone is interesed I will write it again…it’s quite short.
Yeah and this was going up against the NBA playoffs and the Billboard Music awards + the early leak. Really strong ratings so far.
The best news is the numbers are amazingly consistent from week to week. It means people are interested from week to week unlike past seasons when audiences tended to drift in and out until the last two eps.
Connor,
Saw it on TV!
The leak had ”potato” quality…. I could hardly see his face..
Epic scene all around and I loved the Night King! Him and Euron in the same episode was hype for me. Do you think we’ll see them again this season?
Jack Bauer 24,
For sure.
Great news about the ratings- fantastic results even when taking into account all of us “scumbags” who watched the leaked episode.
Next weeks numbers will be even higher! 🙂
Jack Bauer 24,
I hope so! At the end of the season at least.
Honestly, the leak may have served to generate more hype for the episode. I didn’t watch the leaks, but everyone was already talking about how epic the episode was.
Besides, last weak’s episode was loved and had big moments like “Jonsa” and Vaes Dothrak. Those usually cause spikes in the ratings.
In any event, the viewership of the show continues to grow, and given the epicness of this season, I’m pretty optimistic that the record will be broken by the end. Probably episode 10, given how epic episode 9 is likely to be. Same as last year basically. Finale will blow things through the roof.
If the record isn’t broken, a man will be disappointed.
I think it’ll happen, however unlike some I don’t believe 10 million is attainable – yet.
Apollo,
How could I resist the temptation of seeing the episode on a cool, relaxed Sunday afternoon? How?!
Joking aside. I wouldn’t have done it with another show… So it’s only proof of how good it is.
And I still pay for HBO pack to my TV provider and have HBO GO… So they won’t loose my money. 🙂
This show is a juggernaut at this point. If it was airing on a non-premium network, it would be crushing just about anything else on TV ratings-wise (that includes you, Walking Dead).
Not to sound too much like a spoiled fanboy, but, how about those last three episode titles, HBO? We’re only 33 days away from the season finale.
If we don’t see Euron and the Night’s King again, D&D will have to answer to me !
The Night’s King seems likely, but I’m really not sure about Euron. We may not, sadly.
Potential spoilers :
Remember, folks, the Episode 6 ratings will be much lower than Episode 5’s because of Memorial Day in the U.S. It will have nothing to do with the quality of either episode.
Dnis,
Actually EP6 rating would have a stronger connection with this episodes quality rather then 6.
They won’t watch it live, because they didn’t like this episode. They can’t know EP6’s quality before it airs..
Dnis,
I hate this Memorial Day nonsense. Can people not do two things at once ? Celebrate their soldiers and watch GoT later ? Joking obviously, but on a more serious note, ratings never have anything to do with quality of the episode in question anyway, so we’ll really only know by episode 7 how much hype episodes 5 and 6 will have generated.
Mihnea,
This is about ratings…I think numbers would be lower if the sand snakes received 5-15 minutes of story every episode.
Do you think if they got 8 minutes of screen time in say three of the last four episodes that those episodes would all be 8 minutes longer and nothing cut?
If not what would you like to have been cut to have those minutes put in?
O/T But this intriguing EW article just posted says
LOL, we have our BBQ scheduled so it won’t interfere with our GoT viewing.
Great! It was nice seeing an episode with all the POV Starks. They have the strongest storylines this season. Arya’s is finally picking up and Bran was fantastic. Also, WE FINALLY LEFT THE WALL!
I’m actually not surprised they are putting some of what I consider the weaker storylines on Memorial Day. No shade…
I hope we still get to see the North next week (at least a scene).
rhymeswithweak,
The SS would never have had 15 minutes of screen-time. Nor would they have had 8 minutes a episode. They are minor secondary characters. Tyrion didn’t get 8 minutes in a episode.
That is the time the entire Dorne plot got in S5, with Jaime/Bronn scenes.
The leak may have been on purpose to increase viewership. The reveals on the episode required more than one view to process. Most comments on WotW mentioned watching several times after the leak.
It is not interesting to mention this every time.
Last year, when they broke the record at the end of the season, yes. But now it seems just petty.
Ravyn,
Honestly I would have hoped for more than just 3 big twists haha.
Regarding the third twist, do we think they mean the very end of the series or the very end of the season ? Seems like the former to me.
Marlana,
Exactly. I’ve watched the episode two times on HBO, and I’ll most likely see it again once or twice before the next one. It’s not something I usually do tbh.
mau,
Agreed.
We must be close to getting the names of Episode 8 and maybe 9, yes?
Markus Stark,
I don’t think he told them only about these 3 twists.
But rather that these are the biggest.
Ravyn,
At the end of the show or at the end of the season?
Mihnea,
So your answer is that they will just make episodes longer to put them in?
I guess it hasn’t been worth it recently then.
mau,
Good question.
Seeing as
But it wouldn’t suprise me either, if it is..
Mihnea,
Probably true, and I’m sure D&D probably guessed many other events to come based on their knowledge of the books and the story, so some things may be big twists for us, but not things that shocked D&D when GRRM told them. This article indeed seems to refer to the ones that particularly blew D&D’s minds.
Ravyn,
So they explicitly
The very end of the show, not season, was how I read it.
Mihnea,
I hope they don’t mean R+L=J.
That seems pretty clear now.
I loved kinarva the red priestess in this episode. She was mysterious and completely flabbergasted poor varys. Do you guys think we will see her again? Is it a recurring role or was it just a one off?
rhymeswithweak,
They don’t need minutes long scenes.
But that isn’t the point.
I think they haven’t showed up from pure storytelling reasons.
I have my speculations as to what they would do with them. But I fully expect to see them again.
I’m thinking also that the episode being leaked did keep the numbers down. I expect it will jump again this week with all platforms counted! Best season to date, by far.
Ravyn,
Yes, the only question is when and why.
mau,
Good to have confirmation.
The promised prince,
Hope will see more.
mau,
That is very interesting indeed, because it may indicate that
In any case, I don’t expect BastardBowl to happen in the novels (though who knows).
I really hope the third twist isn’t R+L = J. Probably not, because they have known that for years, ever since their meeting with GRRM in 2006. These three twists were revealed two years ago.
mau,
I doubt it.
I read this as twists that suprised even D&D. I doubt that ”theory” would suprise them.
Markus Stark,
Or he loses and retreats to the Wall.
Mihnea,
Maybe, but if that happens
In any case, who knows if we’ll ever find out what happens in the books.
It’s interesting to think about, but infuriating at the same time.
It wasn’t the most watched show on Sunday cable, Warriors vs Thunder topped the viewership, GoT topped the demo.
GoT 3.96/7,890,000
Warriors vs Thunder 3.11/8,018,000
Markus Stark,
A defeat would give him enough reasons to do it.
A victory wouldn’t push him in that direction at all.
I expect it, because there is foreshadowing for that in the books and Martin’s interviews.
Believe it or not, mayhaps the big reveals so far are just on the surface. And not entirely true.
Deeper reveals would be why the long (12,000 years) cycles of awakening and attacking WWs, how the WWs were really made and developed their abilities to reproduce, reanimate mammals, and focus on destroying living beings, how the Red God religion learned of their enemy who must not be named, the underlying purpose of the FM, and why the cycles seem to reinitialize the board, just for a few examples.
And deep in the background, the moral, as if we haven’t seen enough morals already.
Unfortunately, no it won’t be. It’ll be the lowest numbers of the season. That’s because next weekend is Memorial Day. That day is always the lowest rated day of the season. GoT actually skipped Memorial Day in S3 and S4 for this reason.
Marlana,
I doubt will ever get answers to most of those questions.
Damn.. HBO must really hate the fact that there are so few episodes left.
Mihnea,
No, a victory wouldn’t, but another and much more dire battle later on would. More so than a defeat in my opinion. Many believe she will be sacrificed when the Others invade. And to live to fight another battle, he needs to win against the Boltons. In any case, I think his victory over them has been heavily foreshadowed, so a defeat could only come as a major twist. I personally think this is one place where the show and the books have entirely parted ways (how the Boltons will be brought down, that is)
zod,
I really wonder if they will ever have a series this profitable.
When they said at the very end in the interview
Even thought Dorne is not that good I’m still interested to see what will happen with Ellaria and Sand Snakes? I mean they have an army now right?
So my question is; has there been any info about them appearing later this season?
Markus Stark,
I don’t think so.
A defeat against the Boltons will make him desperate enough to sacrifice her for victory.
I strongly dislike that idea that he will sacrifice her because of the WW.
NK,
Mihnea,
Okay, so you’re saying they don’t need minutes long…so they wont have any affect on other story lines because they really wont be getting any time.
I fully agree that we haven’t seen them from pure story telling reasons.
I love these last few episodes.
If they come back I hope it’s done well. Them being the ones who kill franken-mountain is the best story I could come up with for them. I’d rather see the Tyrells or Starks (Arya) or Faith be the ones giving Lannisters trouble more than Dorne.
I know people want clegane bowl but if the sand snakes assassinated the mountain before he was to fight for Cersei that would be good…who would she choose then?
Marlana,
I doubt any of that will ever be revealed in the show, unfortunately.
Never mind HBO, I as a viewer am upset that this will come to an end.
Markus Stark,
I doubt will get it even in the books. Hell the show gave us more info on the WW then all the books combined.
Mihnea,
Interesting. Any reason in particular ?
Thanks. Good to know.
rhymeswithweak,
My speculation. Filming stuff so be aware.
I think his little birds and the SS will kill Kevan and Pycelle. perhaps even Qyburn though I’m not so sure with him.
Mihnea,
So far yes, but if and when the Winds of Winter comes out, I do think it will probably give more detail about their origins and how exactly their creation by the Children came about, as well as the building of the Wall and how the Children lost control of the WW. We already have much more info in the books about the War for the Dawn as well as the War between the Children and the First men. Martin has also said TWoW is going to take us much further North than ever before. He has also said that the irregular seasons will be explained. So I do think many more answers are coming.
Ha! I knew it! I’ve read so many posts by book purists whining t
I kept on telling them that Stannis will burn Shireen in the books too, and that those were red herrings to make the sacrifice as shocking in the books as it was on the show (and that the show had similar moments — namely when Stannis shared his heartwarming story about how he refused to let Shireen die from greyscale).
I guess those book purists can read and weep in 2018 when WoW is finally published.
Markus Stark,
To me the entire scene, hell the entire idea, revolves around futility.
Stannis killed his brother, with blood magic….for nothing.
He will abandone everyone he cared about, he will ”betray” everyone to fulfill his destiny, even his daughter.
To me this is the entire point of the moment. Shireen died for NOTHING, Stannis burned her for NOTHING.
I do not want it to be a last sacrifice, with noble intentions.
To me this is Stannis’s downfall, he broke, he burned his daughter alive and it was all for NOTHING.
This should be the moment of maximum desperation for him. The moment he throws the last bit of humanity away, to fulfill his ”destiny” and then he realizes…it means NOTHING, he killed his brother for NOTHING and he burned his daughter for NOTHING.
That ”nothing” is the most important part to me.
Anyone discussing the new EW article, please head over to the new post. I don’t think people wanting to discuss ratings are expecting future book spoilers in this comment thread.
RBloodworth,
sigh Yes and then a looooong 10 months wait for the last season Trying to enjoy every bit of this that I can in the meantime!
That’s eight episodes in a row above 7 mil. Sweet! Damn good consistency with all five this season too. Memorial Day weekend likely to take a bite though and temporarily drop one into the 6’s.
Clob,
If the rating would stay in the 7 millions I think it would be fantastic!!
Mihnea,
After Stannis was killed, I went back to view some videos of famous renditions of Macbeth’s tomorrow speech. Really fit the moment.
Mihnea,
Okay,
Thanks for posting these articles
Great to hear, I was worried after hearing there was a leak
Am hoping it bursts to all new heights after this weeks epicness
Have just started to pick apart the episode with a rationale mind after a few days of Hodor mourning, this really is quite epic
Eg there’s some rich themes as to how the sequence of deaths in the Cave relate to Bran as an individual. Think this may have been Jack benders first episode(?) but it was oh so brilliant
And the Braavosi Play and backstage actor interactions appears to be very rich in foreshadowing
Even the strategy discussion, “Umber can hang” really stuck out to me….not to mention Sansa didn’t “Bat” an eyelid at all when Brienne mentioned the use of bloodmagic…
Heck I think I can even make sense of the show Kingsmoot and how it potentially reflects Dany vs Jon (if R+L=J is true)
Excellent. May it annoy the hell out of ranters and ravers.
Can someone explain what “demo rating reached 4.0” means?
Excuse my ignorance
rhymeswithweak,
A tool is a tool. Dany will rule not them.
I always figured it shows how like Otherism under pure R’hlorrship there is no future and it is corrosive. Eg resurrected Beric loses part of himself and Thoros of Myr seems to deteriorate but we see it begins with idols and ends with the corrosion and extinction of House Baratheon – which started out as arguably the most powerful House which is why I am intrigued to see where Benerro/Kinvara and Dany is going
This is quite fascinating though, especially when we consider Jons “I saw nothing” (which for mine is a case of not remembering but anyway)
All in all, as Kinvara alludes to, Stannis, Shireen and Hodor are all put into a certain position for a reason, eg Melisandre is at CB when Jon dies as no coincidence, Princess Shireen with Kingsblood had to die for a reason and IMO it is for a PtwP resurrection via Funeral Pyre later on…
Me too- in fact I pay £70 a month for SKYTV/ wifi purely so I’ll have access to GoT so I pay my dues.. But was still made to feel like we’d burned Shireen at the stake! ?
BTW, is it true GRRM is broadcasting on Periscope? I use the app, but don’t know how to find him.
Josh L.,
Ah, good point :/
It refers to viewers between the ages of 18 to 34 I believe.
does HBO ever release viewership numbers for HBO GO & NOW?
Unfortunately next week’s episode will automatically be the lowest rated episode of the season because of Memorial Day. It’s like this on Memorial Day for all of TV as a whole as everyone is out partying and drinking.
Amazing, considerung that the episode was leaked before.
I am so happy that the show and the showrunners get this appreciation after all the horrible comments by some people last season.
In German exists an idiom: The success proves them right (Der Erfolg gibt ihnen Recht).
Mihnea,
Apollo,
Ghosts Lunch,
Only thousands (perhaps even 10’s of thousands) of people would have known about the leak. Take thousands away from millions, and you still have millions.
This just illustrates the difference between fans and viewers. Suppose that 10’s of thousands of people are such big fans that they learned about the leak and watched it that way. Well, that’s more than any other TV show would have gotten.
What is far (far!) more impressive is that Joe & Jane HBO Subscriber (and their analogs in other countries) clearly are not postponing viewing to binge-watch it later. I can completely get the temptation to do this: these sorts of series are much more satisfying when viewed in 3 4 or 2-4 hour sessions over several nights. However, it seems that the temptation to see it now is outweighing that.
Still, be prepared for a big “drop” this week, at least in the States: Memorial Day traveling probably will bite into the numbers.
Lots of that maybe true but we’ve only been give half of a one sided history to go by. I firmly believe the nights king is doing what his side of the pact was. Blood raven started trying to save his targ princes. By killing the starks who. R a lot closer to these ww than we r lead to believe. Princes promised to him was part of the pact.ice fire union.
Maybe only atarg woman can carry nights king frozen seed .and create the most beautiflul lil ice fires.
Not sacrifice marriage princess was promised to the nights king so they could reproduce. Lilicefyres
Love it .
If I recall correctly, the Targaryens were not a particularly prominent family in Valyria: they just happened to be the family that held territory near Westeros, and thus they happened to survived the cataclysm. They were not alone: there are lots of people of Valyrian descent still out there in Essos. For some reason, though, only the Targaryens had dragons out there.
There also is no suggestion in any of the versions of the Long Winter that we get in the books that the Valyrians had anything to do with the Long Winter. I don’t know if they were not there yet, or if Valyria was sufficiently far south that they never noticed it was winter. (It was supposed to be something like 8000 years before; of course, it’s absurd that people would remember anything from 8K years before any better than we do, which is to say: not at all.)
I guess no one pays attention when a MODERATOR tells you this thread is for ratings comments and there is the other for the “predictions”? Hmmmm.
I am hoping, against hope that people will “find a way” to watch the show even with the travel concerns. It IS on at 9pm PST and while on at 6pm EST, it can be watched again by them when we are seeing it for the first time (some of us anyway – I get the East Coast feed at 6pm on HBO not HD, then it comes on HBO HD at 9pm). If I were visiting relatives, I would be sure to have the laptop ready for that hour. Is that too unreasonable???? 😉 We are FREAKS. I guess others will be on planes or driving to destinations. LOL I think I would plan my trip AROUND GoT’s. 🙂 I am hopeless.
Hee I already told my brother that we were leaving his house by 5pm (GOT starts 6 here), unless he wants me to watch it at his place with his kids there. I’d figure that would work..
The HBONOW/GO numbers are going to be huge. Will be interesting to see how much of a drop-off we see after the free month is over.
This is amazing! Even after the leaks wow!
What an amazing historical record breaking show.
These are only nielsen ratings, not HBO now or GO. So there will be no drop-off.
I’m expecting over 9 millions for episode 9 and 10.
Of course, if you are on a plane with WiFi and have HBONow, then you can watch it on a plane.
That written, I did not read of any reports of planes landing early because of passengers in fits of hysterics because of Hodor, so that must not be too common…. 😀
Seriously, though: I wonder why people are putting off the binge-watching?
GeekFurious‘s notion that the free month is boosting the ratings has some merit, but that idea can be tested: how are other HBO shows ratings doing? And, really, we still would expect the “I’m saving them to watch all at once” effect from other people (number in the 1-2M range last year given the beginning and end ratings) who should not have changed their general viewing habits from last year.
Another possibility is that this is due to book readers being more anxious to see what is coming up now that we have so little idea. However, that seems improbable given that the main demographics for HBO viewership do not overlap well with the demographics for fantasy fans.
Color me stumped. (What color is stumped?)
WTF are you talking about? These are only the nielsen ratings…. so what free month are you talking about?
So actually the ratings suffer because of the free month…
I was in fear that the leak would have decreased the view count by some extent, but I’m glad that wasn’t the case. I wonder if that means it’ll be a record breaker next week?