Episode 8 of The Last of Us series produced by HBO gathered 8.1 million viewers when it aired on Sunday March 5, 2023 in the United States. It is quite simply the record of the series since according to Warner Bros. Discovery, this title belonged to episode 4 with 7.5 million viewers, despite the fact that the audience data for episodes 5 to 7 were not revealed. Those 8.1 million viewers who watched Episode 8, titled ‘When We Are in Need’, contributed to a 74% increase in viewership from the first episode, which drew 4.7 million. of people. It was thus an immediate audience success for the series The Last of Us, since it had already become the second best launch of a series for 10 years, just behind “House of the Dragon”. The series then built on that launch with 5.7 million viewers on the second episode, HBO’s biggest ever increase from a launch to a second episode, leading to an early Season 2 renewal. 6.4 million viewers, episode 3 received critical acclaim, especially for the performances of Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett, who played the characters of Bill and Franck respectively.
Faced with this constant increase in interest around the series, it is very likely that episode 9 could reach a new audience record for the end of this Season 1, despite the fact that there will be in parallel the 95th Academy Awards which will air on ABC. But we remember that episode 4 had gathered 7.4 million viewers, while it was in competition with the Grammy Awards. Nothing is played therefore.