Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones” notched a series record of 17.8 million viewers, according to HBO. “The Long Night” broke the record set by the season premiere just two weeks ago when 17.4 million viewers tuned in.
The numbers for “The Long Night” include 12 million television viewers who watched on HBO at 9 p.m. Sunday night. The rest were viewers who watched an encore presentation, combined with those who streamed the show with the HBO Go or HBO Now apps.
“The Long Night” — which pitted the living against the dead in a great battle in Winterfell — was one of the most anticipated episodes of the series.
The episode was 82 minutes long and required 11 weeks of night shoots in Northern Ireland, where much of the series is filmed.
Social media lit up after the episode. Fans created memes, discussed plot points and even complained about the episode’s cinematography online.
Some viewers noted that the episode’s battle sequences, which were set at night in a blizzard, made it too difficult to make out what was happening on screen.
HBO also said on Tuesday that the season premiere has now been seen by more than 38 million viewers across HBO’s linear and digital platforms when accounting for delayed viewing.
