The TV adaptation of The Last of Us on HBO is proving to be a huge success for the premium network.

Between linear and streaming numbers, the premiere of The Last of Us attracted a whopping 4.7 million viewers. The only HBO premiere to attract a higher viewership than The Last of Us in the last 10 years is House of the Dragon, which garnered 9.98 million viewers for its first episode. The last time an HBO series saw numbers equivalent to The Last of Us premiere was all the way back in 2010, when the first episode of Boardwalk Empire attracted 4.8 million viewers.

For context, when Boardwalk Empire premiered, HBO still wasn’t counting streaming viewers coming from its HBO apps and the HBO Max streaming service. But given that more people consume shows on-demand and via streaming nowadays, this high viewership of The Last of Us still means a lot for the cultural landscape of 2023.

This is also a huge success for gamers who for years have been underwhelmed by TV and film adaptations of their favorite videogame franchises.

The Last of Us is a direct adaptation of the videogame series of the same name. The franchise, developed by Naughty Dog, first started in 2013 as a post-apocalyptic action-adventure game about a smuggler (Joel) escorting a teenager (Ellie) across the U.S.

Over the years, the franchise has spun other games such as The Last of Us: Left Behind, The Last of Us Part II. A remake of the first game, titled The Last of Us Part I was also released late last year.

We can’t wait to keep watching The Last of Us and get to the LGBTQ+ storylines explored in both the videogame series and on the TV show.

The Last of Us is now streaming on HBO and HBO Max.