'The Last of Us' scores HBO's second-biggest premiere in more than a decade, behind only 'House of the Dragon'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: 'The Last of Us' is one of the biggest shows of the year and HBO is hoping it to be another gigantic success like 'House of the Dragon'. The show based on a video game series of the same name has managed to create new records for the network as it drew more than 4 million viewers on Sunday night.
According to HBO, the series premiere of 'The Last of Us' was watched by over 4.7 million viewers across linear and HBO Max platforms on Sunday, January 15, in the US. The figures are based on the details collected through Nielsen and first party data from HBO. The statistics suggest that it is the second-biggest debut ever for an HBO series, behind only 'House of the Dragon' that racked up almost 10 million viewers on the day of its premiere.
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Apart from the 'Game of Thrones' prequel, the last HBO show to have a massive opening night was 'Boardwalk Empire' (4.81 million) in 2010.
The figures also indicated that the show's performance on Sunday night was almost double the season two debut night for 'Euphoria'. The Zendaya-starrer turned out to be a gigantic hit and averaged 19.5 million viewers per episode in the US.
The first episode of the newly-launched HBO series saw Joel (Pedro Pascal) trying to save his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) from the zombie infection. While trying to run away,, they get into an accident that forces them to change their path. Joel and Sarah are stopped by an army man who has been given the orders to kill anyone who is injured or infected. The army man tries shooting Sarah, but Joel manages to escape. However, they fell down and as the army man was close to shooting them, Joel's brother shot down the army man and saved them. Unfortunately, the fall kills Sarah and Joel is unable to save her.
In the ending moments of the episode, we see how the entire nation has been completely ruined due to infection and people are now living in Quarantine Zones. The episode ends with Joel getting a task to transport a girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across America for an unknown purpose.
The episode garnered universal acclaim and critics, as well as audiences, and praised the storytelling, performances, cinematography, special effects and background score.
'The Last of Us' currently holds a rating of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.