Game of Thrones Final Season Premiere Slays Ratings Record

Fans are sad about Game Of Thrones ending, but they’re certainly not boycotting the show as a result! In fact, the numbers for the show’s final season premiere are quite shocking!

Entertainment Weekly reports that the 17.4 million viewers tuned in on Sunday night to watch as Jon Snow (Kit Harington) brought Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) to Winterfell to meet his surviving siblings. This number includes multiple airings and streaming views.

HBO’s had many hits over the years (Sex & The City; The Sopranos), but the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere is the largest showing in HBO’s history. It’s also the most-watched scripted program of the year. (The Big Bang Theory scored 14.1 million viewers on February 7.)

Last season’s Game of Thrones finale earned 16.9 million viewers. The number for this premiere is all the more an accomplishment given that Dish subscribers weren’t able to tune in due to a contract dispute in late 2018.

Game of Thrones, not surprisingly, was trending on social media, earning 5 million tweets. There were certain moments (the dragons staring at the Mother of Dragons kissing Jon for instance) that just begged for memes to circulate and Twitter was there to serve up the most hilarious.

It’s predicted that the show’s numbers will just continue to grow as this final season marches towards the upcoming finale. There is huge interest as to who in Westeros will survive the war against the undead (White Walkers) and possibly make it all the way through to sit on the Iron Throne.

Even Las Vegas is getting in on the action, taking odds as to who will make it to the end to rule the seven kingdoms. While Dany feels she’s the rightful Queen, she is in for a shock (maybe next week?) when she learns about Jon’s birthright. And of course, never count out Cersei (Lena Headey). Who will win? Guess we’ll have to tune in to find out!

Game Of Thrones airs Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m.