HBO has been knocking it out of the park with its almost universally-beloved adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, and now it's got some more numbers to back up all that praise. It seems like audiences have a thing for having their hearts torn to absolute shreds, and this is one network that always appears more than happy to oblige.
While the pilot episode of The Last of Us scored HBO's best premiere in years, episode 2 has reportedly managed to blow those numbers out of the water with seemingly effortless swagger. The Last of Us' second week saw 5.7 million viewers tune in on Sunday night for the mushroom zombie action, an increase of 22% over the previous episode. That's a whole 1 million more who had flocked to this exciting new show based on some pretty enticing word of mouth. Not too shabby.
According to WarnerMedia, not only has the first-day viewership of The Last of Us episode 2 surpassed the already remarkable milestone set by the premiere but episode 1 has reached approximately 18 million viewers in the week since it dropped, showing a whopping 4x increase over the initial numbers. The pilot episode of The Last of Us nailed a lot from the game, so many fans of Naughty Dog's arguable masterpiece likely made up a good chunk of that audience. But numbers like this prove the show has some true mainstream appeal, which makes sense given the heart-pounding story.
The Last of Us sees Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller, an unfortunate everyman who loses everything when a deadly fungal plague spreads around the world, transforming human hosts into aggressive undead-like creatures. After 20 years of getting by among his fellow survivors in a totalitarian quarantine, he's charged with escorting a teenage girl (Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey) who appears to be immune to the infection to a place where she can be properly studied. The hope was that her unique properties could help lead to a cure.
The story admittedly might sound pretty basic on paper. But it's all about the characters and their interactions, and The Last of Us excels at them in every iteration. As Joel and Ellie make their way across the country, they face equal danger from the infected and fellow survivors. While some elements like a The Last of Us character's tragic death might work better in the game, there's a universal quality to these types of interpersonal stories that draw in the crowds. The episode 2 viewership numbers are proof of that.
The Last of Us is off to an incredibly strong start on HBO, and in all likelihood, it will continue to trend upward. Here's hoping it can help put talk of a video game movie curse to bed, especially since there's a lot of nuance to such a topic. But either way, audiences might want to bring some tissues.
The Last of Us drops new episodes on HBO and HBO Max on Sundays.
Source: WarnerMedia