If HBO was worried about debuting The Last of Us series on the same night that the NFL playoffs were continuing its first weekend, the network didn't show it. When looking at how popular the debut episode of The Last of Us was on social media, it appears that the streamer knew exactly what it was doing.While official ratings haven't come in for the premiere of The Last of Us, episode 1 of the show was getting talked about in a big way on social media. The Last of Us' live-action adaptation was the number one trending term on Twitter, beating out any specific talk about the AFC playoff game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens.As Twitter user Benji Sales pointed out, people experiencing and talking about The Last of Us outranked anyone talking about the Ravens or Bengals or any individual players on any team. The screenshot by Sales shows exactly when The Last of Us was at the top of the trending rankings. This is an impressive accomplishment considering Bengals defensive back Eli Apple had just been burnt rather badly on a route that led to a Ravens touchdown.
The talk about the show was undoubtedly a predominant topic on Sunday night, though that is hardly a surprise. The Last of Us is one of the most popular video games in the industry partly because of the memorable monsters that stalk its world and how the story deals with humans being the real monsters. "Humans are really the bad guys" has been a theme in many shows, but The Last of Us captured the grittiness and horror of that aspect better than most.
Social media reactions indicate that the HBO show has accomplished the same feat. The question now is whether or not the show will continue the trend of being this popular on social media. It's a safe bet that it reeled in video game fans, but radical changes are expected in The Last of Us show in the coming weeks.
What exactly those changes might be is still anyone's guess. There's a chance that the Ellie story could see some big changes. Whether The Last of Us series can keep the momentum going will be something to watch in the coming weeks.
The Last of Us debuts new episodes every Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max.
Source: Benji Sales/Twitter