The Last of Us finale is the highest-rated episode for a U.S. debut series on Sky

The Last of Us is a runaway hit in both its mediums. Both the original video game and its sequel became huge benchmark titles as Playstation exclusives. The TV live-action adaptation became a ratings juggernaut for the premium cable channel HBO. Most recently, the finale had garnered an average of over 8 million viewers across the linear and digital platforms. Deadline now reports that the finale is Sky’s most-watched U.S. finale of all time for a debut series.

The heart-wrenching final episode of the popular adaptation would reach more than 3 million viewers in the U.K. This total would overtake the viewing ratings for a season finale of another popular HBO show, the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon from last year. The dystopian drama is also the most-watched U.S. show in the history of HBO Max in both Europe and Latin America.

According to Sky, over 1.2 million people had watched the finale overnight on Sky Atlantic and defeated the final episode of Love Island on ITV2. Sky, a Comcast-owned channel, is benefitting from the licensing deal it made with HBO. In addition, Succession‘s season 4 had also debuted on the channel.

The Last of Us stars Pedro Pascal, also known for such projects as The Mandalorian, and Bella Ramsey, who was previously seen in Game of Thrones. It comes from Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, which is based on the PlayStation-exclusive game by Naughty Dog developers. The drama takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal journey as they both must navigate an outbreak of mutated creatures in the U.S. and depend on each other for survival. 

The show, like the game, is a hit with critics and audiences alike with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 96% and an audience rating of 89%. The original PS3 game scored a 95% metascore on metacritic and a user score of 9.2. The sequel game, which was released on the PS4, received a 93% metacritic score, however it was a divisive game among users for its bold narrative.