Game of Thrones ratings down slightly from premiere, still stupid high

Here’s the sort of bad news: the second episode of Game of Thrones season 8, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” didn’t have quite as many viewers as last week’s premiere, “Winterfell.” That’s no surprise, given that “Winterfell” was the first new episode of the show in almost two years. The good news is that “Knight” is still the fourth most watched episode in the history of Game of Thrones, according to Deadline. Somehow we think HBO will be fine.

Including people who watched the episode on HBO GO and HBO NOW, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” pulled in 15.9 million viewers. To put that into perspective, the season 8 premiere pulled in 17.4 million, not counting those who watched it on streaming services like Hulu and Amazon Prime. That made “Winterfell” the most-viewed episode of Game of Thrones ever. The season 7 finale, “The Dragon and the Wolf” is the second most-watched episode with at 16.1 million viewers over the same period of time.

Ratings are up 10.6% from the second episode of season 7, “Stormborn,” and that’s with HBO no longer being carried by Dish Network. There’s also the fact that “Knight” aired on Easter Sunday, which probably meant it took another hit, if only slight.

This upcoming Sunday, the living will finally face the dead in an as-yet-untitled battle spectacular. With the stakes sky-high, there’s a good chance Episode 803 could inch past “Winterfell” to be the most viewed episode of Game of Thrones ever.

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