The Last of Us HBO TV Television Episode 8
Image: HBO

We always got the impression HBO’s The Last of Us was going to be big, but we never expected it to be quite this big. The penultimate episode of season one, which aired this past Sunday night, topped 8.1 million viewers, making it the biggest instalment thus far. To put things into perspective, that’s a gigantic 74 per cent increase on the viewership of the premiere, meaning interest has been increasing with each subsequent week.

The series previously peaked with Episode 4’s incredible 7.4 million viewers, although due to some disruption with the Super Bowl, data wasn’t available for Episode 5 through 7. Nevertheless, we’d expect this coming week’s finale, Episode 9, to set a new record – even if it will be forced to compete against the Oscars.

Regardless, the entire PS Productions team must be absolutely thrilled with the series’ performance, as it’s also had a profound impact on the series’ video game sales, which have been slowly rising up the charts. This month will see the release of The Last of Us: Part I on PC, which is sure to be a major launch as well.