Not even the Grammys, the most important awards ceremony in the musical world, could overshadow The Last of Us. Although it was expected that the premiere of the fourth episode would have a drop in audience due to the broadcast of the aforementioned gala -they coincided at the same time-, in the end the opposite happened. The debut of this chapter, in fact, was enjoyed by more people than the previous one.
According to data provided by HBO, the premiere of “Please, take my hand” increased its audience by 17% compared to the previous episode. In total, during his first 24 hours of availability, he was seen by 7.5 million viewers.
That each premiere is more successful than the previous one means one thing. The series is making so much noise that more and more people are interested in watching it. When they are up to date, they look forward to the debut of the next chapter.
You might think that this phenomenon is repeated with every highly popular television production, but it is not. What distinguishes The Last of Us of other successes is that the audience growth between each premiere is quite large. Practically, is adding a million new viewers every weekend.
According to Varietygrowth —in audience— is even faster than that of the house of the dragon, which is HBO’s flagship series. Yes, the spin-off of Game of Thrones racked up 10 million viewers for the premiere of its first episode—compared to 4.7 million The Last of Us—. However, that number began to decrease in the next few chapters.
Despite having surprising numbers, at HBO they know that competing against the Super Bowl next Sunday is an impossible mission. It’s well known that it’s one of the biggest sporting events of the year and no one wants to get in its way, not even Joel and Ellie. For this reason, they advanced the premiere of episode 5 to Friday.
The Last of Us sets its sights on its second season
It is still too early to tell, but it is likely that, if it continues at this pace, it will become the most important series of the company when its second season arrives. By that time, the production should already have a large, established audience, eager to see how they adapt the second game.
Let’s remember that The Last of Us It only took three episodes to convince HBO that they have another TV phenomenon on their hands. Therefore, it was renewed for a second season. Of course, the showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann consider that, due to the duration and complexity of The Last of Us Part 2require more than one season to adapt it correctly.
“It’s a great animal to take down, you know? It’s a much bigger and more complicated story. I think it’s a beautiful story. So Neil [Druckmann] and I are analyzing it, because it is more than one season.»
Craig Mazin.
The Last of Us It is the premiere of the year and you can only see it on HBO Max
