Game of Thrones season 8 breaks HBO rating record

Coming back from its longest hiatus in series history, Game of Thrones earned its highest showing and enjoyed an all-time rating record.

The Season 8 premiere drew in more than 17 million viewers across live broadcast and streaming platforms. It exceeded the previous series high of 16.9 million viewers, who tuned in for the season seven finale in 2017.

.@GameOfThrones season eight premiere watched by record 17.4 million viewers: https://t.co/0NYMwkPOz9 pic.twitter.com/U2GAAyiV9I

— HBO PR (@HBOPR) April 15, 2019

Game of Thrones ultimately averaged 32.8 million viewers per episode last season in cumulative TV and online viewership, HBO said. The first episode also broke a record on social media, becoming the most tweeted about GoT episode ever with 5 million tweets.