Spoiler alert: Jon Snow is still dead — a lesson that 7.9 million total viewers learned Sunday night from the Season 6 premiere of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”
That count only includes traditional linear viewership from the premiere’s first run, placing Episode 51 down 1 percent versus the prior season premiere. If you include HBO Go and HBO Now, that 7.9 million leaps to 9.7 million.
If one really wants to make HBO look good, counting two additional re-airs would add 758,000 and 205,000 viewers, respectively. So the grand, grand total becomes 10.7 million audience members. (That tally wouldn’t include anyone who tuned in as part of HBO’s free preview weekend — Nielsen don’t play that.)
Overall, the generous 10.7 million count would top Season 5’s comparable all-in figure (9.8 million) by 9 percent. It also would defeat the Season 5 finale’s comparable count by 4 percent. That said, additional platform adoption continues to grow, inflating the latest numbers across the newest technology.
Per Nielsen’s Live + 7 Day metric, last season’s premiere is currently the most-watched “Thrones” episode of all-time, eventually pulling in 10.461 total TV viewers overall with the benefit of a week’s worth of delayed viewing.
Read about those Live + 7 Day Nielsen ratings for every single prior “Game of Thrones” episode here.
We’ll find out in due time if Season 6’s debut was able to top them all on just the main screen.