The much-anticipated sixth-season premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” fell a little short of its series-high same-day ratings set last year, but it appears poised to become the show’s most-watched episode to date once viewership on other platforms is included.
Nielsen estimates that 7.944 million watched the 9 p.m. premiere telecast on Sunday, the third-largest linear audience to date for the show — a bit below both its year-ago premiere (7.997 million) and finale (8.112 million). But given that stand-alone streaming service HBO Now broke usage records on Sunday night, it’s a pretty safe bet that overall viewership for “The Red Woman” will set a single-telecast series record.
In another way of looking at the ratings for Sunday’s premiere, “Thrones” has already set a record. When you add up the linear viewership for the night’s three HBO airings, plus early numbers for streaming in HBO Go and HBO Now, the total of 10.7 million is up 9% from last year’s premiere (9.8 million) and 4% above the previous high set with last year’s finale (10.3 million).
