Forbes Runs the Numbers: Game of Thrones bigger than The Walking Dead

With The Walking Dead scheduled to return to the airwaves this fall, the age-old debate over whether it’s more popular than Game of Thrones has returned. The Walking Dead started up right before Game of Thrones did, in the fall of 2010, on the basic cable channel AMC. Game of Thrones bowed in the spring of 2011, albeit on paid cable. Since then, the two have grown from tiny little fire breathers to major ratings monsters upon whom the two channels ride.

So which one is bigger? Forbes looked at the numbers. It’s a difficult comparison to make, as AMC runs on a commercial-based monetization system while HBO is subscriber-based. But as Forbes notes, since Game of Thrones’ debut in 2011, HBO has gone from 81 million subscribers at the end of 2010 to 122 million today. That’s almost 10% growth in subscribers every year since the show hit the air. The Walking Dead has had the same effect in advert rates, with AMC enjoying on average a 12% increase each year.

In same-day ratings numbers, The Walking Dead beats Game of Thrones handily, because of the basic versus pay cable advantage. After all, AMC is found in “roughly  94.8 million households.”

"The Walking Dead scores more Live+Same Day viewers thanks to its home on cable. Season six averaged 13.15 million real-time viewers and a whopping 6.48 rating in the key 18-49 demo. (Game of Thrones’ season finale scored a 3.9)."

But although Game of Thrones might lose in the Live+Same Day race, it more than makes up for in the “multiplatform views” on services like HBO Go and HBO Now.

"The season six finale set a series high with 8.9 million Live+Same Day. However, when you factor in multiplatform views, the overall number soars upward like Drogon taking flight to 23.3 million, a 15% increase from season five. That’s a staggering figure that doesn’t even capture the whole picture as Game of Thrones became the most illegally downloaded show in history back in 2015."

The Walking Dead, on the other hand, scores an average of 18.9 million viewers seven days out from any given episode.

And then of course, there are the awards. In this, The Walking Dead doesn’t even come close. This year, Game of Thrones is poised to break the record for all-time Emmy wins for a drama. All it needs to do is win *one* of its staggering 23 nominations. (And that’s down one from last year’s 24 nominations). The show has won several Golden Globes as well.

The Walking Dead picked up a Globe back in 2011, but since then, it’s just been the occasional pat-on-the-head nods for prosthetic work and visual effects. And usually, it loses in those categories to—you guessed it—Game of Thrones.

With numbers like that, it’s hard to argue that AMC’s The Walking Dead is even playing in the same league as HBO’s Game of Thrones. But that won’t stop the Negan-Jon Snow crossover memes any time soon.