The Last of Us is breaking the curse of video game live-action adaptations. The horror drama is not only pleasing fans of the original source material but is also pulling in numbers of a quintessential HBO hit series. The show has been steadily growing in viewership for the past three weeks of its entire run. It became HBO’s largest-rated debut just after House of the Dragon. Deadline has given word that the fifth episode of the season will be making an unusually early debut on the streaming service HBO Max.
Two days before episode 5 is due to premiere on HBO, it will be available to stream on HBO Max this Friday, February 10, at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. The episode will be airing on TV for its normal schedule, however, the east coast has a direct conflict with the upcoming Super Bowl. It hasn’t been formally announced, but it is speculated that the consistent large number of viewers that tune in on the night of the big game is the reason HBO has decided to give audiences an early access to this week’s episode.
Unlike other streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, HBO original programming still debuts content on its legacy premium cable network. As the shows make their first run airing on the channel, that’s when they will usually also become available online. Despite Episode 3 of the show competing with the AFC Championship two weeks ago, The Last of Us has continued to grow its audience up 37% with 6.4 million people tuning in, but the Super Bowl is practically a holiday where family and friends get together to watch the last game of the NFL season. HBO looks to be getting ahead of audiences who will be putting off watching the show until after the game in an attempt to keep interest going with their core base.
The series will continue as normal after this week. The immensely popular show is based on the Playstation game of the same name and stars Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman as well as Melanie Lynskey, Storm Reid, Merle Dandridge, Jeffrey Pierce, Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Woodard, Graham Greene, Elaine Miles, Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker.