HBO reports ratings high for ‘Game of Thrones’

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The premiere of the final season of “Game of Thrones” both series and network viewership records, according to HBO.

• HBO announced that a total of 17.4 million viewers watched the Season 8 premiere of the show — an all time record for any episode of the show or any other show on HBO.
• HBO broke the data down to explain that 11.8 watched the 9 p.m. eastern debut — with the remainder coming from two encore presentations plus viewers on HBO Go and HBO Now.
• In addition to the overall series record, Sunday, April 14 also saw the largest streaming activity ever for the network.
• Previously, the series viewership record was the Season 7 season finale at 16.9 million.
• The record shattering viewership also surpassed the 14.1 million viewers who watched the Feb. 7 episode of CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory,” which had held the record for most watched scripted entertainment program this year.
• In addition, because of HBO’s premium model and multiple streaming options, the actual number of people who watched the show — when accounting for multiple viewers on the same stream — is closer to 100 million.
• The Daily Mail even suggested that number could hit 1 billion in the 170 countries around the world that the show is available in.