The latest episode of HBO’s The Last of Us has seen a Sunday night viewership increase of 22% from its debut, the largest ever jump in viewership from an HBO original drama series. The news is hot off the press from Warner Media press office, sharing that The Last of Us‘ second episode hit 5.7 million viewers across HBO and linear telecasts in the U.S., a one million increase from last week.
The first episode of The Last of Us had its viewer count quadruple in just one week, with the series premiere now sitting at an impressive 18 million viewers. The series premiere only took two days to catch up to the premiere of Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon. Interest in HBO’s video game adaptation is evidently rising, as more and more viewers choose to tune into The Last of Us, even over NFL Playoffs. It remains to be seen whether the show will continue this level of growth, but the trends are looking positive.
Last night’s episode of The Last of Us was directed by Neil Druckmann himself, the co-creator of The Last of Us video game series, with him also overseeing the show alongside Craig Mazin. Despite glowing critic and audience reviews, the series is not without its controversy. Bruce Straley co-directed the 2013 The Last of Us video game alongside Druckmann, but was left without a credit in the show. This has lead to Straley supporting calls for greater unionization in the gaming industry.
Did you watch Sunday night’s episode of The Last of Us? How are you finding the show so far? Let us know in the comments below, and as always you can keep your eyes on GameLuster for more breaking gaming news.
