Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale Sets HBO Ratings Record

By Bryce Olin | Jun 17, 2015

Game of Thrones wrapped up its fifth season with record-setting ratings for HBO on Sunday night, according to a report fromTheWrap.

More than 8.1 million people watched the Game of Thrones Season 5 finale titled “Mother’s Mercy,” which set the record for an HBO drama series. Based on past seasons and interest leading up the finale, we knew the number would be big, but we didn’t know it’d be this big, especially with the pivotal Game 5 of the NBA Finals happening at the same time.

Although it’s not indicated in the piece, those 8.1 million viewers don’t include people who watched the season finale on HBO Now or HBO Go; those 8.1 million viewers watched the finale on cable TV, not a streaming service. To me, that makes those numbers even more impressive.

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People claimed to have stopped watching Game of Thrones on principle and because this season “wasn’t as good as others,” but the fact of the matter is, people are still watching. And, on top of that, more people are watching the show than ever before.

More people watched the Season 5 finale than the Season 5 premiere (8 million), and more people watched the Season 5 premiere than the Season 4 finale (7 million), according to the report. By that math, even more people will watch the Season 6 premiere, which is guaranteed to be quite the episode based on how the fifth season ended.

No spoilers here, though!

As of right now, there’s been no official announcement about the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 6. However, the show is casting for new characters and choosing different locations for the new season, according to Den of Geek. Based on old season release dates, we can also assume Game of Thrones will be returning at the beginning of April, likely April 3, 2016, or April 10, 2016.

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