‘Game of Thrones’ Ratings: ‘Last of the Starks’ Down Slightly, Equals Season 8 Premiere

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – UPDATED: After last week’s epic Battle of Winterfell posted record numbers for “Game of Thrones” viewership, it’s no surprise that this week’s episode, “The Last of the Starks,” has come in slightly lower.

Episode four of the final season drew 11.8 million total viewers during its initial broadcast, meaning it was down 200,000 viewers on last week’s episode, which was watched by 12.02 million viewers in the same window. However, in multi-platform viewing, this week’s episode notched an impressive 17.2 million viewers. That encompasses those who watched on platforms like HBO’s streaming offerings GO and HBO Now.

However, “The Last of the Starks” did manage to impressively equal the initial total viewership for the season 8 premiere, and also topped episode two, which posted the lowest initial broadcast viewership of the season so far with 10.29 million total viewers. The episode now has the third highest initial figures in “Thrones” history, behind only last week’s “The Long Night” and the season seven finale, which posted 12.07 million.

“The Long Night,” which was also the longest ever episodes for the series, posted a record 17.8 million viewers across all platforms (linear, HBOGO and HBO NOW). The previous gross audience high was 17.4 million viewers for the premiere episode of season 8. The first episode of the final season, titled “Winterfell,” has now surpassed 38 million viewers, according to HBO.