The Last of Us is HBO's second-biggest premiere in more than a decade

HBO and PlayStation Productions haven't exactly been shy about promoting their The Last of Us series the last few weeks. Understandable, considering it's one of the best shows I've seen in years. That makes it all the more pleasing to hear that it's off to an amazing start in terms of viewership as well.

Because Warner Bros. Discovery reveals in a press release that The Last of Us had the second-biggest debut on HBO and HBO Max in more than a decade by having more than 4.7 million viewers in the United States alone. Very impressive, even if it's less than half of what Game of Thrones spinoff House of Dragon broke records with last year. The last premiere that did better besides that was Boardwalk Empire with 4.8 million back in 2010, but that was obviously before the streaming platform was included.

This means that The Last of Us beat the likes of Game of Thrones, Westworld, Succession, and even Craig Mazin's (who's also co-lead of this show) Chernobyl, so my hopes for a second season are still very much alive.

Have you watched the first episode yet? What do you think so far?