Sky Atlantic says Game of Thrones Fandom Has Reached “Critical Mass”

There are still people who don’t watch Game of Thrones, but their numbers are shrinking. All season, the ratings continued the remarkable growth rate we’ve seen throughout the show’s run, setting records for the longest consistent audience growth of any HBO show ever. The finale, “The Winds of Winter,” was the most watched episode ever in the show’s history.

But where does it top out? With Season 6 having been the final full-length season, and with Season 8 all but officially declared the show’s last, the director of UK television channel Sky Atlantic thinks the show has hit its peak. Speaking to Business Insider, Zai Bennett says that this year was the “tipping point,” at least when it comes to the UK audience.

"The entire series was watched by an average audience of 3.6 million on television, while viewing on Sky’s online services Sky Go and Now TV took this figure to nearer 5 million. This made it the biggest show in Sky Atlantic’s five-year history.Of this, an average of 30,000 viewers stayed up until 2 a.m. UK time to watch each episode at the same time it went out on HBO in America. “I can only imagine they watched it in costume,” Bennett joked."

Fratboy cracks about cosplayers aside, it’s hard to imagine that Game of Thrones could get much bigger than it already has, especially with the final episodes just around a (very wide) couple of corners. In fact, as the show ends, it’s possible that fans could start to walk away in frustration, especially with the shorter seasons and the ever-lengthening wait times for the next one.

But at the same time, I can say that anecdotally, I know several people who had not watched the show up until now who are finally settling down to audiobook the novels, binge-watch the series, and get caught up “now that there’s a guaranteed end point.” So perhaps that critical mass may not be quite reached yet.