HBO's The Last of Us has proven it can dance with the House of the Dragon, but Episode 3 proved it can usurp the Game of Thrones spin-off spot at the top, or at least have a fair shot at doing so.
While The Last of Us hasn't pulled in more viewers than House of the Dragon yet, Episode 3 brought in 37% more when it's compared to Episode 1 and 12% more compared to Episode 2.
According to HBO, a total of 6.4 million viewers tuned in to watch Episode 3 when it premiered last Sunday. In addition to this, The Last of Us' average audience size is already over 21 million when you total the views from other platforms.
Here's what HBO said in its press release:
Season 1 is now average 21.3 million viewers across its first two episodes, marking another historic milestone as HBO celebrates its most-watched programming slate in the network's history.
This is the first time HBO has had multiple current series drawing more than 15 million viewers at a time across all genres.
Given these historic numbers, you can't blame HBO for greenlighting Season 2 of HBO's The Last of Us, which we assume is going to adapt the events of The Last of Us Part II and might even extend beyond a single season.
The Last of Us Episode 3, Long Long Time, introduced new characters, Nick Offerman's Bill and Murray Bartlett's Frank. The pair falls in love and spends more than a decade together living in a well-stocked, well-armed, and well-guarded bunker. Unlike the first two episodes, Episode 3 focused on the relationship that Bill and Murray formed in the middle of a world-ending apocalypse.
More importantly, Episode 3 is, so far, the largest deviation the live-action adaptation has had from the show, which has drawn mixed reactions from certain audiences despite the critical acclaim.
Fans can look forward to watching Episode 4 of HBO's The Last of Us on Sunday, February 5.
In other news, the success of The Last of Us on HBO has prompted calls from audiences for a similar high-production live-action adaptation of Resident Evil following a failed attempt by Netflix.
