The Last of Us becomes HBO’s second biggest debut since House of the Dragon

HBO programming continues to bring in big numbers. The much-hyped The Last of Us Playstation adaptation aims to continue breaking the live-action video game curse (after those who proclaim Netflix’s The Witcher has already done that) and, indeed, the show is already bringing in big-ratings for HBO. The Sunday night premiere of the series has just become the Home Box Office’s second-highest debut since 2010, according to Deadline.

This premiere came in behind the channel’s other juggernaut series, the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, whose premiere episode brought in a total of 9.986 million viewers, the largest audience in the history of the premium network. The Last of Us is said to have drawn in a whopping 4.7 million viewers through their traditional channel and the HBO Max streaming service.

The series debut is the second-highest premiere since the premiere of the Martin Scorsese-produced Boardwalk Empire, the period mob drama starring Steve Buscemi, which had brought in 4.81 million viewers through the linear network. The Last of Us‘ numbers were also doubled that of the second season debut of the controversial (and much loved) drama Euphoria, which would bring in 2.4 million viewers last year in January. However, for that series linear numbers didn’t tell the whole story, with the show bringing in an average of 19.5 million viewers an episode in the United States.

The Last of Us was highly anticipated as the Playstation game is one of the most popular properties on the console with innovative story-telling and action-adventure aspects amongst the horror that rival that of the game company’s other successful property, Uncharted, from the same developer. The show comes from the game’s creator, Neil Druckman, as well as Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin.

The series stars Pedro Pascal, who is equally riding high off the anticipated new season of Disney+’s The Mandolorian, and Bella Ramsey, who is an alumnus of Game of Thrones and sports a similarity to another popular cable show, The Walking Dead. With all of these elements combined, it’s no wonder there was such a high debut for the show. In addition, the writers have claimed that they would not follow the Game of Thrones route and extend their own story lore beyond what’s been told in the games after the final Thrones season created its own narratives since George R.R. Martin’s own novel has still yet to release.