‘Game of Thrones’ S6 Finale Ratings Blew Up Like … Well, Wildfire
You may have heard of a small indie program on one of the smaller networks, HBO’s Game of Thrones. People talk about it. In any case, this program appears to have aired a Season 6 finale recently, for which the ratings apparently reached an all-time high. You may commence removing your jaws from the floor, and/or cease howling in confusion.
Yes, early reports appear to indicate that Sunday’s 69-minute finale “The Winds of Winter” delivered an all-time high of 8.9 million linear viewers, well-above the 8.1 million who watched Season 5 finale “Mother’s Mercy.” Of course, that number has yet to take in viewers across subsequent days, DVR and other digital platforms, which will likely send the final number higher than 23 million, the average of Season 6 to date.
Overall, Season 6 ratings are up 15% from Season 5, among the few dramas successfully expanding its audience with each season. Sunday premieres are up 6% , with HBO Now and HBO Go digital platforms up a whopping 70% over last year.
Certainly, Game of Thrones has the opportunity to continue that streak with only 13 episodes left overall, the pace of which seems unlikely to shed viewers. We’ll find out full numbers soon, but was Game of Thrones Season 6 a peak for the series?