HBO is going to be sad to seeGame of Thronesgo next year, but they have to be absolutely ecstatic with it right now. TheGame of Thrones season 7premiere was received very well by fans and set the penultimate season up in a big way. That is important, no doubt. But for HBO, it is all about the ratings and they are absolutely off the charts. Even this late in the series run, it is still breaking ratings records.
According toEntertainment Weekly, theGame of Thronesseason 7 premiereDragonstoneis getting ready to surpass a truly staggering 30 million viewers across all of HBO’s platforms. That is an absolutely monster number making it easily the biggest show on TV. Period. Considering that many more average cable shows would be happy with 1 million viewers, that makes the 30 million viewer figure all the more eye-popping. Even the live ratings were beyond anything most networks could dream of.Dragonstonepremiered on July 16 to 16.1 million viewers, which makes it the biggest opening night audience ever for anHBO series.
HBO has been having some serious piracy issues when it comes toGame of Thronesand in order to try and reduce that, they have been debuting episodes on the same day across many of the 186 countries that the show airs in. That has proved to be a solid strategy as far as ratings are concerned. Almost every country that airsGame of Throneshave showed gains during season 7. In the U.K., theGame of Thronesseason 7 premiere racked up 4.7 million viewers after seven days, making it the largest audience for any program ever on Sky Atlantic.
Game of Thronesseason 7 has also seen huge gains in Taiwan, Singapore and in many Latin American countries, as well as seeing a very impressive 210 percent ratings bump in Germany. All of this to say,Game of Thrones is the biggest show aroundand nothing can get in its way. There are only 7 episodes total in this season and 6 for the final season ofGame of Thrones, so these massive ratings won’t last for much longer, but HBO is certainly going to be happy to milk this cow for all its worth while they can. And the news comes at a good time, after HBO experienced what could have been a massive set-back with acyberattackaimed at the hit show.
The network is currently working on four differentGame of Thronesspin-offs, not all of which are expected to air, but they are hoping they can continue the adventures in Westeros somehow. They have also ordered a show calledConfederatefromGame of Thronescreators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and writer-producers Nichelle Tramble Spellman (Justified) and Malcolm Spellman (Empire), though that show has come under fire on social media from many people who don’t like the idea of the alternative-history-based drama. For now, they can bask in the glory that is their insanely impressiveGame of Thronesseason 7 ratings, as the series continues this Sunday with the episode titledSpoils of War.
