It appears that word of mouth is still one of the strongest forms of advertisement, for HBO's critically acclaimed The Last of Us show continues to rise in viewer count, with its most recent 8th episode, When We Are In Need, reaching more than 8.1 million viewers during its Sunday night premiere.As reported by Variety, this is a 74% increase from the series' pilot episode, which had approximately 4.7 million day-1 viewers. This was, on its own, no small feat, as it was the second most-watched HBO pilot in the last decade, only behind the highly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon.The full series got an overwhelming majority of positive reviews from critics, and every episode so far has been widely celebrated by fans as well. It's clear that the show's supremely positive buzz has continued to garner it more and more viewers.And if you feel like you're suffering from deja vu, that's because this is the fourth time this has happened. Episode 2 had more Sunday viewers than Episode 1, and so on, until Episode 4, which reached 7.5 million viewers. According to Variety, Warner Bros. (HBO's parent company), didn't publicize the viewership numbers of episodes 5-7, so it's to be assumed that these were unable to keep the streak going.
Episode 8, however, did break the record yet again, possibly because it tackled one of the most iconic and compelling moments in the game. Only one episode remains of the show's first season, and it only makes sense for the story's climax to motivate viewers to check it out as soon as possible, so we'll have to wait and see if The Last of Us can break its viewership record for the fifth time.
The show has already been renewed for a second season, though no timeframe has been relayed regarding its release window. Creator of The Last of Us and co-showrunner of the series, Neil Druckmann, confirmed via Twitter that the second season will, as expected, be based on the game's sequel, The Last of Us Part II, which launched for the PlayStation 4 in 2020.