Winter may be coming, but it can’t cool off this summer’s hot “Game of Thrones” start.
Sunday’s Season 7 premiere episode scored 10.1 million linear viewers, which grows to a massive 16.1 million when counting multiple platforms.
More specifically, that latter figure factors in those linear plays, along with same-day DVR playback and HBO Go/Now. It also makes Sunday HBO’s new most-watched premiere evening ever — yes, for any series in the pay-TV channel’s history.
The 16-plus million tally is a whopping 50 percent higher than last year’s Season 6 premiere. The linear-only total saw some big growth itself — that Nielsen figure is up 27 percent from last season’s debut in April, which had hauled in 7.9 million viewers.
Season 6 of “Game of Thrones” ended up as the most-watched season of any HBO series on record. Look for that mark to crumble as well — especially with just seven episodes to average out this season. The first six seasons of “Game of Thrones” each had 10 episodes.
The kickoff to the “Game of Thrones” penultimate season was also a smash-hit on Twitter, where the episode’s 2.4 million tweets broke the series’ previous record.