When Euphoria premiered on 16 June, two-thirds of viewership came from online and nonlinear platforms. In this regard, the series outdoes ‘Game of Thrones’ for online viewership in terms of percentage gains, driving home HBO’s marketing slogan “It’s not TV.”

The series, controversial in nature, features a number of teenagers who struggle to navigate a world full of drugs, sex, love, friendship, and social media. Sam Levinson created the series, based on an Israeli miniseries by the same name.  Zendaya portrays Rue Bennet, a 17-year-old recovering drug addict. Maude Apatow joins her as Lexi Howard, Rue’s childhood friend, alongside actors Angus Cloud (Frezco), Eric Dane (Cal Jacobs), Alexa Demie (Maddy Perez), Jacob Elordi (Nate Jacobs), Barbie Ferreira (Katherine Hernandez), Nika King (Leslie Bennett), Storm Reid (Gia Bennet), Hunter Schafer (Jules Vaughn), Algee Smith (Chris McKay), and Sydney Sweeney (Cassie Howard).

Eurphoia’s premiere showing attracted a decent 577,000 online viewers. According to HBO, this number spiked to nearly 1 million thanks to online platforms following the initial showing on the night of the series premiere.

To compare, the season 8 premiere of Game of Thrones was met by 17.4 million first night viewers (including replays and streaming, this number grows to 27.7 million). Viewership increased by 59 percent in the week following its initial debut. Although Euphoria‘s numbers are low in comparison to the epic fantasy drama, a greater proportion of viewers of the new release watched via digital platforms than the premiere of Game of Thrones.

The target audience for Euphoria admittedly skews younger than that of Game of Thrones. With this being said, 802,000 viewers watched its premiere from live plus three. This places roughly 65 percent of viewership on other nonlinear platforms. These early returns situate the post-premiere gains of Euphoria above Big Little Lies and Barry.

The same-night average across platforms for Big Little Lies, another HBO phenomenon, was 2.25 million. This figure is 55 percent above TV numbers (1.45 million). By contrast, Euphoria’s first-night online viewership showed a 73 percent increase.

Barry‘s multi-platform audience eventually tripled following its initial airing. Meanwhile, in only four days Euphoria‘s multi-platform audience has quadrupled (577,000 to 2.3 million).

It is important to note that these streaming figures come from HBO and, as is the case with streaming figures across the TV industry, are not readily verifiable through other sources.

Euphoria is HBO’s first teen drama. Its initial streaming figures reflect the ability of young adults to consume media. According to HBO, Euphoria‘s premiere on HBO Now was the largest debut since Westworld first aired in 2016.