The premiere of HBO's The Last of Us has officially passed House of the Dragon's debut in streaming figures. Based on the critically acclaimed 2013 video game of the same name, The Last of Us premiered on January 15 and quickly became HBO's latest buzzy show. Prior to the post-apocalyptic zombie series, HBO released the equally popular House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones, in August 2022. To date, House of the Dragon had HBO's biggest series debut, with 10 million viewers internationally tuning in to watch the premiere episode.
In the newest numbers from Nielsen, it has been confirmed that The Last of Us episode 1 was a bigger hit than House of the Dragon's, at least when it comes to streaming.
The Last of Us hit the Nielsen streaming charts at number 6 for the week of January 16 to January 22, the first full week after its premiere, with 837 million minutes viewed. In the same interval of time after its premiere, House of the Dragon accrued only 741 million minutes viewed (per Deadline).
HBO's Continued Streaming Success
According to HBO, The Last of Us has seen consistently high viewership for each episode since the show's release, with the first two episodes averaging around 21.3 million viewers across all platforms. These streaming numbers only include those tuning in to The Last of Us on HBO Max, and not viewership on cable TV. The zombie series is the only HBO Max program to make it onto the top 10 overall Nielsen streaming chart for January 16 to 22, with the rest of the list being dominated by Netflix programming.
Both The Last of Us and House of the Dragon have been major successes for HBO. The Last of Us has been growing in viewership numbers by the episode, and while House of the Dragon began to see a drop-off after episode 2, it later rebounded. Although the Game of Thrones prequel still has the larger viewership numbers in total, The Last of Us seems to be finding its footing more solidly through streaming services rather than on live television, as the Nielsen stats indicate. Both series have become critically acclaimed, spelling success for both HBO and HBO Max.
With four more episodes of The Last of Us still to come, it will still be some time before the show's full measure of success is revealed. However, if the first full week of the show's release alone is any indication, The Last of Us could become as successful as HBO's most recent crowning jewel, Game of Thrones. Whether viewership numbers will fluctuate in the coming weeks is still to be seen, but with The Last of Us already renewed for season 2, it seems likely the show will do great things for the network.
Source: Nielsen, Deadline