Ratings: Game of Thrones pulled in record viewers during Season 6

It’s been quite a day for Game of Thrones announcements. We learned that Season 7 would both be shorter and debut later than past seasons, and HBO released details about the Season 6 home video boxset. HBO also announced the official ratings for this past season of Game of Thrones, as well as for several other shows. Basically, it’s a confirmation of what we already know: Game of Thrones Season 6 did really, really well.

"GAME OF THRONES highly anticipated sixth season conquered all previous seasons with episodes averaging 25.1 million viewers to-date (linear Plays + DVR + HBO On Demand + HBO GO/HBO NOW). That’s approximately five million viewers more when compared to last year’s average (20.2 million). Viewing on HBO’s Digital Platforms comprise almost 40% of season six total viewing, with HBO GO and HBO NOW up a combined 91% vs. last season."

“Overall, GAME OF THRONES continued its reign as the most watched HBO series on record.” It did indeed. An average of 25.1 million viewers per episode is quite a feat.

Many of the newcomers seem to have watched the show on HBO GO and HBO NOW, showing more than ever than watching episodes of television as they air is becoming passé. It’ll be interesting to see if these numbers continue to grow into Season 7, or if the digital platforms brought in a bevy of new viewers all at once, a group that won’t grow much between now and next summer.

I tend to think the numbers will keep growing. It’s clear the show is heading into an endgame, and I suspect a lot of people will be binging Seasons 1-6 during the interim so they can hop on board HBO’s joy train for the show’s final two years.

Meanwhile, HBO’s other shows continue to do well. Silicon Valley and Veep both scored better averages than they did last year, with 6.7 million and 4.2 million viewers per episode respectively. Those are solid, but probably don’t allay questions about how HBO is going to plug the hole once Game of Thrones is off the air.