'The Last of Us' Viewership Keeps Climbing

The HBO hit drew 8.1 million viewers last Sunday and has seen steady viewership increases throughout its first season.

HBO‘s ‘The Last of Us’ is the King of Sunday night television.

Warner Bros. Discovery revealed on Monday that Episode 8 generated 8.1 million viewers, surpassing Episode 4’s 7.4 million total, though the company did not disclose audience numbers for episodes 5-7. Those numbers account for both linear viewership on cable and viewers on streaming app HBO Max.

The latest episode, When We Are In Need, held a 74% viewership increase from the 4.7 million who watched the series premiere. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Back on Feb. 6 when the show was three episodes in, viewership had increased with each new episode. Episode 2 saw a 22% increase from Episode 1 (5.7 million) and then Episode 3 saw a 12% jump to 6.4 million.

This is no easy feat. Some of the most popular shows on HBO, like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, White Lotus, and Euphoria, all failed to pull off such a consistent increase.

“I just want to say, this has never happened to me in my life,” actor Nick Offerman told Variety in praising the show. “It’s crazy.”

The Last of Us, inspired from the popular Playstation game, was a clear success from the first day it aired on Jan. 15.

The 4.7 million viewers from Ep. 1 made it the second-most-watched debut in over a decade, after “House of the Dragon.”
The 5.7 million viewers for Ep. 2 was HBO’s largest ever increase between a launch and a second episode, which led to an early Season 2 renewal.

Don’t be surprised if the The Last of Us hits a new high with the season finale on March 12 — and while they’ll be competing with the Oscars, the show raked in 7.4 million viewers despite going up against the Grammys.