Game of Thrones final season premieres at record numbers

Game of Thrones is more popular than ever in its final season!

The first episode of the highly anticipated final season of Game of Thrones is now in the books and unsurprisingly, the viewers turned out in droves.  The ratings were so good in fact that they were able to break a couple of records.

For starters, it’s now the most watched scripted program of the year at 17.4 million viewers, beating the previously most-watched show (a February episode of The Big Bang Theory with 14.1 million viewers in case you were wondering) by over 3 million viewers.

Last Sunday’s season premiere is now also the most-watched telecast in the history of HBO beating the previous record holder which was fittingly enough the Game of Thrones season 7 finale from two years ago (so basically that record stood for a grand total of one episode).

These numbers, which are about on par with The Walking Dead ratings back in its heyday, are certainly impressive enough by themselves.  However, they become especially more so when you factor in that HBO is a premium cable show and that the ratings would’ve also likely taken a major hit due to the contract dispute between the network and satellite provider Dish effectively barring countless fans from watching (at least the conventional way).

The final season of Game of Thrones will continue to air tomorrow night on HBO.

What is your opinion of the latest ratings?  How high could it have gotten if Dish subscribers had been able to watch?  Do you think they’ll be even higher for the finale? Give us your thought in the comment section below.

Game of Thrones airs new episodes every Sunday night at 9 PM EST.

Source: EW