The Last of Us dramatic finale broke the show’s viewership record

HBO series faces down The Academy Awards

This weekend saw a massive army of Fireflies glue to their TV screens, as HBO aired the ninth and final episode of its highly acclaimed series, The Last of Us — The show, an adaptation of t🎐he Naughty Dog game of the same name, broke its own viewership record⛎, pulling in an amazing 8.2 million viewers.

The lofty number represents the solid growth that the sci-fi/horror series has maintained since its premiere in January of this year. Episode 1 got off to a solid start with almost five million viewers, and the figures have seen a steady increase with each successive episode. The previous record was held by last week’s Episode 8, which now sits in second place with around 8.1 million viewers.

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Episode 9’s success is even more amazing when you consider that The 95th Acadamy Awards were aired on the same night. And while many had assumed that Hollywood’s annual party would have cut into the viewing figures of all shows that evening, it seemed that nothing was keeping the fans from watching the violent and shocking final scenes of Joel and Ellie’s first-season adventures.

HBO’s The Last of Us has already secured a second season, although recent comments to GQ from show creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin suggest that they are hoping for at least three seasons, with seasons 2 & 3 expected to cover the events of 2012’s dramatic video game sequel, The Last of Us Part II. With these impressive viewing figures under their belt, it is likely the production team have been “blank chequed”, and will get said wish with ease.

[Variety]