HBO's season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones set a record for viewership of the series when including live streaming on the HBO Go and HBO Now platforms. While actual live viewership of the program during its 9 p.m. premiere missed last year's levels by a bit, the streaming services put the total number of viewers over the top, making the episode the most watched ever of the series.
The total viewership for the episode, entitled "The Red Woman," hit a new high of 10.7 million when including all three airings of the show on HBO on Sunday, along with preliminary viewing numbers for streaming on HBO Go and HBO Now. Last year's season premiere caught 9.8 million eyeballs, while the season finale hit a series high of 10.3 million viewers.
The record numbers came just in time for HBO, which has been losing its mojo a bit lately as Netflix has recently come on strong with its lineup of original programming, such as the recent premieres of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Marvel's Jessica Jones, along with the highly-anticipated upcoming season premiere of Orange is the New Black. A recent survey of viewers indicated Netflix has now surpassed HBO in perceived quality of original programs, so a timely reminder of HBO's staying power via the premiere of its most watched series should be a boost for the pay channel.
The plot details of the premiere of Game of Thrones were highly guarded by the network this year after a disastrous leak of the first four episodes of season 5 occurred on torrent sites prior to the actual season debut. This year, HBO declined to provide the customary screener copies to members of the press, instead holding a private Hollywood premiere party on April 10.
Other veteran HBO series that premiered on Sunday also performed well, with Veep and Silicon Valley both reaching a similar number of viewers as last year. Saturday's surprise debut of Beyoncé's Lemonade visual album also garnered a healthy 787,000 live viewers, along with hundreds of thousands more for streams on HBO Now, HBO Go and subsequent HBO airings. The exclusive set also provided another water cooler moment for the network, which now appears to be gaining some much-needed momentum.
