HBO’s “The Last of Us” broke a new viewership growth record following the release of the apocalyptic drama’s second episode on Sunday evening.
According to first-party data from Nielsen and Warner Bros. Discovery, episode 2 attracted a total of 5.7 million viewers across HBO and linear telecasts in the US, up 22% from the series’ debut and an additional one over the previous week. million viewers.
Per HBO, this figure marked “the largest Week 2 audience increase for an HBO original drama series in the network’s history”.
The latest viewership record comes after “The Last of Us” pilot garnered 4.7 million viewers in its first night, HBO’s second-biggest debut — behind only “House of the Dragon” — behind “Boardwalk Empire.” premiered on the network in 2010 and nearly double the first night of season 2 for “Euphoria”.
Sunday night viewership for HBO series typically represents 20%–40% of the show’s total gross viewers per episode.
After a full week of availability, the first episode of “The Last of Us” is now tracking in 18 million viewers, nearly four times its premiere night audience.
“The Last of Us” takes place 20 years after the destruction of modern civilization. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle a 14-year-old girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What begins as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both have to cross America and depend on each other to survive.
The rest of the main cast includes Gabriel Luna (“True Detective”), who plays Tommy, Joel’s younger brother and ex-soldier; Anna Torv (“Fringe”), who plays Tess, a smuggler and fellow hardened survivor; and Merle Dandrig (“The Flight Attendant”), who reprises her role from the video game as Resistance leader Marlene.
Guest stars include Nico Parker (“The Third Day”) as Joel’s daughter Sarah; Murray Bartlett (“The White Lotus”) and Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”) as Frank and Bill, two post-pandemic survivors living alone in their own isolated town; Storm Reid (“Euphoria”) as Riley, an orphan in Boston; and Jeffrey Pearce (“The Last of Us” video game) as Perry, a rebel in a quarantine zone.
The series, which is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, is written and executive produced by Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) and Naughty Dog co-chairman Neil Druckmann. Other executive producers include Caroline Strauss, Evan Wells, Assad Qizilbash, Carter Swan and Rose Lamm.
