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Game of Thrones Is Even More Insanely Popular than You Think

The mysterious fate of Jon Snow turned into a huge win for HBO.
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The fact that Game of Thrones is hugely popular should come as a shock to no one; the widespread dismay over next year’s shortened season alone should be enough to indicate how hooked we all are. But if it felt like Game of Thrones made leaps and bounds in popularity last summer, with its will-he/won’t-he Jon Snow cliff-hanger dominating the cultural conversation, that’s because it did. The fate of Kit Harington—and some other factors—grew the Game of Thrones audience by a whopping 25 percent this year.

Deadline reports that when accounting for repeat airings, DVR, HBO Go, HBO Now, and HBO on Demand together, Game of Thrones averaged an insane 25.1 million viewers for its sixth season. And that’s not even counting the record-breaking number of people who watched the season illegally through online torrents. Going by HBO’s numbers, Game of Thrones appears to have even beaten out ratings juggernauts like The Big Bang Theory and Sunday Night Football. The Walking Dead—taking a slight live-ratings hit from last year— drew in 18.4 million total viewers for its divisive Season 6 finale. Factoring in later online views, the AMC show’s numbers are flat and lack the massive growth of the HBO series.

The disparity in growth between Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead may have something to do with the zombie drama’s lack of momentum in recent seasons. Though that series tried to amp up the stakes with a number of deathly twists last year, the show has inevitably become a bit repetitive with Rick Grimes and his crew clashing and escaping from zombies week in and week out. Game of Thrones, on the other hand, has already announced a likely end date and is clearly building towards some kind of spectacular conclusion.

HBO’s chairman and C.E.O. Richard Plepler chalks up the growing popularity of Thrones to the network’s recent efforts to move into online platforms. “These record audiences reflect the options we have built into our business model over the last few years,” he said. “Combining the convenience of HBO on Demand and HBO Go with the subscription flexibility of HBO Now, our programming is being exposed to an ever growing audience.”

We’ll see if a delayed Season 7 does anything to put a dent in the show’s popularity. (It probably won’t.) If anything, I’d imagine that the less-crowded TV landscape of summer will make Game of Thrones even more inescapably popular.

From Victims to Victors: The Women of ​Game of Thrones​’ Style Transformations

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Left, from Photofest; right, Courtesy of HBO.
Sansa Stark—Sophie Turner
When we first met Sansa in Season 1, the talented little seamstress was dead-set on dressing like the Southern ladies of Westeros. But after several transformations—including her dramatic dark look at the Eyrie—Sansa has reconnected with her Northern roots. Dressing more like her mother, Catelyn, last season and wearing her handmade direwolf dress with pride this year, Sansa is neither Lady Bolton nor Lady Lannister. She’s pure Stark.
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