With the season one finale of The Last of Us officially out in the world, audience numbers are starting to come in. In the US market, where the show is aired on HBO, The Last of Us has now surpassed House of the Dragon for full season viewers.
Both The Last of Us and House of the Dragon are available in Australia on Binge.
The Last of Us takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal journey, as they travel across the US and depend on each other for survival.
Season one also features Australian stars Anna Torv as Tess, a smuggler and fellow survivor and Murray Bartlett as Frank, a post-pandemic survivalist.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the finale of the zombie drama averaged 8.2 million viewers across all platforms for HBO – making it an opening night high, topping last week’s 8.1 million. According to HBO, the show now averages 30.4 million viewers in the USA since its premiere on January 15th.
By comparison, Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon averaged 29 million cross-platform viewers over the course of its run. Despite this, it still holds the title of biggest debut episode on HBO, with 9.9 million viewers compared to The Last of Us’ 4.7 million.
The title of most US full season viewers on HBO is still held by the final season of Game of Thrones, which averaged more than 44 million viewers over its 2019 run.
In Australia, House of the Dragon broke viewing records across Foxtel and Binge after its premiere on August 22nd last year, with 1.235 million viewers watching the first episode. That number made it the biggest premiere for any show in history across Foxtel and Binge.