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‘The Last of Us’ Season 1 Finale Scores 8.2 Million Viewers, Reaching Series High

kyliethicc

Member
show is a huge hit

“The Last of Us” closed its first season with yet another triumph. With an audience of 8.2 million people for Episode 9, the series broke its own viewership record — a significant feat, considering that the finale was released during ABC’s telecast of the Oscars.

A combination of Nielsen data and first-party data from Warner Bros. Discovery, this number accounts for those who tuned into the Sunday night airing on HBO’s cable channel as well as streams on HBO Max through the night. WBD also shared that the first six episodes of the series are now averaging 30.4 million viewers, with Episode 1 approaching 40 million. In Europe and Latin America, “The Last of Us” is the most watched show on HBO Max ever.



rest of the story

This isn’t the first time that “The Last of Us” has outdone itself while competing with a major awards show. Episode 4, titled “Please Hold to My Hand,” brought in 7.5 million viewers when it aired at the same time as the Grammys, which was then a series high: When “The Last of Us” debuted in January, it trailed “House of the Dragon” to become the second-most watched HBO premiere in over a decade with 4.7 million viewers. Episode 2 marked HBO’s biggest ever increase between a series’ first and second episode with 5.7 million viewers. The series then brought in 6.4 million viewers with Episode 3.

WBD also released new data about the audiences of Episodes 5-7 of “The Last of Us,” which was previously unavailable.

Episode 5 was viewed by 11.6 million people, which, though impressive, Variety is not considering a series high due to its untraditional release strategy. Because the episode’s originally scheduled Sunday night airing was set to coincide with the Super Bowl, HBO released the episode on HBO Max two days early. Therefore, this figure points to viewership across the entire weekend of Feb. 10-12.

Episodes 6 and 7 were viewed by 7.8 and 7.7 million people, respectively.

The most comparable series in terms of viewership has been Season 1 of “House of the Dragon,” which aired in 2022. Its finale was viewed by 9.3 million people. And though “The Last of Us” hasn’t yet managed to outperform “House of the Dragon,” the former has managed a steeper trajectory than the latter. Beginning with 4.7 million viewers and ending with 8.1 million, viewership of “The Last of Us” soared by 75% throughout Season 1.

By contrast, “House of the Dragon” was viewed by 9.99 million with Episode 1, 10.2 million with Episode 2 and 9.3 million with its finale. (WBD did not release exact numbers regarding the audience of Episodes 3 through 9.) That’s a 6.9% decrease. And while the viewership of the “House of the Dragon” finale was certainly hurt by the fact that the episode leaked online two days before it aired, it’s almost impossible that it could have increased by the rate that “The Last of Us” did even without the leak. Despite that many of the episodes’ specific tallies were unavailable, it is still known that they followed a more even path: Variety was able to confirm that viewership of “House of the Dragon” rose by 5% with Episode 4, by 3% with Episode 5 and by another 3% with Episode 6.

It should also be noted that “House of the Dragon” had the advantage of serving as a prequel to “Game of Thrones,” HBO’s biggest hit of all time, while “The Last of Us” is the first screen adaptation of its source material (the PlayStation games of the same name). “House of the Dragon” also never aired in competition with a major awards show.

“The Last of Us” scored an early renewal for a second season, which was announced when only the first two episodes of Season 1 had aired. And given the success that the series has become, a third season is already looking likely: Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann expressed on Monday that they intend to stretch the storylines of the second “The Last of Us” video game into more than one season of television.

Read Variety‘s finale interview with Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the video games, here.




 
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Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Surely all those folks also watched the previous episodes, just maybe not on the day they dropped. They didn't just watch the last of them and call it a day yeah?
 
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Surely all those folks also watched the previous episodes, just maybe not on the day they dropped. They didn't just watch the last of them and call it a day yeah?
I think the data includes only the premiere day of each episode.

But I could be wrong tho.
 

kyliethicc

Member
Well deserved. better than the game from a story perspective, imho. Druckman should become a TV guy and just focus on that from now on and let someone else handle ND’s games
Cracking Up Lol GIF
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Got to be honest I thought the finale was probably the weakest of all the episodes.

The editing for Joel in the hospital was very strange, the change in Joel's demeanour at the start was really jarring as well.

It had some good beats in the episode itself but overall just felt a bit of a letdown.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
I don’t even like the game because of its trash fire story but gameplay wise because of the advanced AI it is the best in what it does.

It’s a fun shooter with good AI

The exploration, crafting, character progression, and some encounter designs leave a lot to be desired though
 

Skifi28

Member
I was under the impression it was going to be 10 episodes. So it's over at 9?

Edit: My bad, IMDB was showing 10 episodes since it was also counting the first episode of season 2 >.<
 
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Vick

Member
Just say "I" and keep others out of your opinion.
No, he's 100% right.

The exploration, crafting, character progression, and some encounter designs leave a lot to be desired though
nah-jake-gyllenhaal.gif


It's actually the very best example of exploration I can think of in games, if I got what you mean.






The visual feedback of immersing yourself within the environments is unmatched, in particular indoor thanks to the dynamic GI.

Looking into every single corner to gather resources is a fucking pleasure in TLOU games to me, and none ever looks the same as another. It's God Tier in this regard.
 
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James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
No, he's 100% right.


nah-jake-gyllenhaal.gif


It's actually the very best example of exploration I can think in games, if I got what you mean.






The visual feedback of immersing yourself within the environments is unmatched, in particular indoor thanks to the dynamic GI.

Looking into every single corner to gather resources is a fucking pleasure in TLOU games to me.


The environments are visually nice, but completely shallow and devoid of anything interesting that impacts the gameplay.

The only thing you can do is try and find crafting materials which is annoying
 

EN250

Member
Go woke make dope

Aside from rainbow colored happy story for Bill, there wasn't much "woke" crap in the show, same as the game, tho Bill in the game is a real complex character, something you don't see in the show

Now, Ellie being a minor and the makers obsessing over her sexuality is ehh, I guess it's an American thing, so I'll reserve my thoughts on that to avoid repercussions, but it's also faithful to the game, so it wasn't changed at the last minute for clout, like most shows do this day 🤷‍♂️
 
Best episode so far.

It was nice to see Ashley Johnson as Ellie's mom. It's a beautiful scene that isn't in the game. One man army part wasn't good though. The man who couldn't kill 3 street thugs, is killing countless soldiers. It wasn't believable at all.

But you think the same scene in the actual game is believable?
 

Vick

Member
The environments are visually nice, but completely shallow and devoid of anything interesting that impacts the gameplay.
There's actually environment/visual storytelling into every inch of the game in fact.. along with documents, files, unique assets everywhere, hidden contextual lines of dialogue, contextual special interactions etc. etc.
 
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Nankatsu

Member
I think the last episode has the essential, but felt a bit rushed. Game did a better job with the ending.

Overall I think the series is good, specially for those who didn't play the games. Now here's hoping S2 gets a bigger budge and I'm curious to see how much they'll stretch it before that specific scene happens.

Still think series is gonna take a hit once they finally do it.
 
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James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
There's actually environment/visual storytelling into every inch of the game in fact.. along with documents, files, unique assets everywere, hidden contextual lines of dialogues, contextual special interactions etc. etc.

Don’t disagree, but it could be much more interesting gameplay and level design wise

It’s just really nice looking window dressing to serve the story
 

Raonak

Banned
A linear shooter with basic gameplay and progression systems?
The fuck are you blabbering about? TLOU2 absolutely nails what it's trying to do.
If you're looking for an openworld game with a large skill tree then you're looking the wrong damn game.
You're making nonsensical complaints because the game isn't a completely different game.

TLOU is a stealth-action game. And TLOU2 has the best stealth-action gameplay around, second only to MGSV.

In an case, good to see the show succeeding as much as the games :)
 
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Chiggs

Gold Member
Great numbers. I'm probably checking out of Season 2. I think I've had my fill.

I may just sneak a peek when Abby is introduced. :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
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