‘Game of Thrones’ Breaks Series Record With 17.8 Million Viewers for the Battle of Winterfell

Fans spend a very “Long Night” Sunday with multiple HBO platforms

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HBO

(Spoiler alert: Stop reading now if you do not what to know what happened on Sunday’s “Game of Thrones” episode, “The Long Night.”)

Victory! A series-record 17.8 million people watched “Game of Thrones” Episode 803, titled “The Long Night,” on Sunday. That counts multiple platforms — including streaming on HBO Go and HBO Now — and one encore airing.

The sum is up 12% from the prior week, which saw the second episode of the current and final season draw 15.9 million multiplatform viewers. This Sunday’s 9 p.m. TV airing alone scored 12 million viewers, a season-high for the time slot (the Season 7 finale is still the record-holder there).

The huge “Thrones” audience provided an awesome lead-in for Bill Hader comedy “Barry,” which earned another series-high of 2.5 million multiplatform viewers at 10:30 p.m. “The Long Night” was appropriately titled, clocking in at a series-long 82 minutes.

The good guys won the Battle of Winterfell on Sunday when Arya Stark slayed the Night King with a little Valyrian steel action. You’re next, Cersei.

The April 14 “Game of Thrones” Season 8 premiere night had previously set the series’ gross-audience record by drawing 17.4 million multiplatform viewers. The record-holder before that was the show’s Season 7 finale, which drew 16.9 million multiplatform viewers.

HBO says the Season 8 premiere has now eclipsed 38 million viewers.

HBO’s preferred internal numbers, which count HBO Go, HBO Now and repeats, cut off 30 days after each season finale airs. Per HBO’s own count — so yes, that month-plus-long version — U.S. viewership per season has been:

Season 1: 9.3 million
Season 2: 11.6 million
Season 3: 14.4 million
Season 4: 19.1 million
Season 5: 20.2 million
Season 6: 25.7 million
Season 7: 32.8 million

Below is Nielsen’s version, which counts seven days of delayed viewing per episode. This is a more typical way of looking at things, but it does not count HBO’s significant streaming additions.

Season 1:  3.3 million
Season 2:  4.9 million
Season 3:  6.4 million
Season 4:  9.0 million
Season 5:  9.5 million
Season 6:  10.6 million
Season 7:  13.7 million

“Game of Thrones” airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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