‘The Last of Us’ breaks a new audience record despite competing for the Oscars

Last Sunday, March 12, was a feast for fans of film and television, as the Oscars 2023 and the final episode of “The Last of Us” took place simultaneously. And while many were watching the Academy gala, that didn’t stop the series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey from breaking a new viewership record with its finale.

According to data from Warner Bros. Discovery, reported by Variety, ensure that the end of ‘The Last of Us’ broke audience records againas it did with the start of its first season and third chapter, during its broadcast on HBO and HBO Max. The report ensures that, despite sharing the schedule with the broadcast of the Oscars 2023, the Pedro Pascal series is been stronger than ever.

Warner Bros. Discovery says the first six episodes averaged 30.4 million viewers, with the premieres reaching 40 million concurrent viewers on the HBO channel and HBO Max streaming service since its premiere. But it was the ninth episode of ‘The Last of Us’ the fact that managed to break his own audience recordmore than 8.2 million people.

So it is not surprising that, in Europe and Latin America, ‘The Last of Us’ became the most watched series on HBO Max throughout its history. Even with the Grammy broadcast, the seventh episode of the series surpassed its viewership to that point, with over 7.5 million viewers at the episode’s launch.

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The numbers of ‘The Last of Us’ are impressive

The premiere of “The Last of Us” in January of this year was accompanied by impressive numbers, which even surprised its creators. Well, Chapter One managed to be the second most-watched release on HBO in more than a decade, just below “The House of the Dragon.” 4.7 million viewers, followed by 5.7 for the second, and progressively increasing until the end.

The series started with 4.7 million viewers, and ended with 8.2, which means a 75% increase since the beginning of the adventure. It’s because of these numbers that Warner didn’t think twice about confirming the development of a second season, which creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann recently said they wanted to stretch to two more seasons to encompass the entirety of the second game.

Pedro Pascal has assured that the recordings of the second season of “The Last of Us” could begin at the end of this year. However, at the moment there is nothing confirmed and everything indicates that the return of Joel and Ellie will take place in at least 2024 or 2025, so we should wait a bit.