According to Parrot Analytics, a data science company that measures global audience demand for television content, and Guinness World Records, the global demand on the day of Game of Thrones’ 8th season premiere exceeded the global premiere demand of every other TV series, for any season across all platforms and markets measured. It even beats the previous record holder, which was Game of Thrones’ global season 7 premiere day demand.
Parrot Analytics measured factors such as video consumption (streaming and downloads), social media engagement (hashtags, liking, and sharing), and research actions (such as reading and writing about shows). For the company, the more consumer effort is needed, the more importance the company gives to each factor, according to TV Insider.
In order to determine the measurement, Parrot, which declares to utilize global, real-time and platform-agnostic TV demand measurements, and Guinness World Record mapped worldwide demand for all series premieres from April 2015 to the day of Game of Thrones’ season 8 premiere (Winterfell) on April 14.
“Game of Thrones amassed a per capita global audience demand of 25.46 on 14th of April 2019, its season 8 premiere day. Compared to its per capita global demand of 24.74 on the day of its season 7 premiere, the latest and final season has premiered 2.9% higher globally. Premiere day demand has been particularly strong in the United States, United Kingdom, and France,” said Samuel Stadler, VP of marketing, Parrot Analytics.
As CBS News points out, the audience for the show is more impressive since HBO is a service that people have to expressly pay for. The channel is available in around 35 million households in the United States, or about a third of the number of households that can watch CBS, NBC, and ABC.
“It comes as no surprise. Game of Thrones has its fans tightly clenched in its dragon-like grip, and excitement for this final series has seen phenomenal engagement across every platform,” Guinness World Records Editor in Chief Craig Glenday said.“It has broken records since it first aired — for its viewership figures, Emmy wins, and even its status as the most pirated TV show,” Glenday continued. “And it looks like it’s going to continue breaking records right up to the final, undoubtedly devastating episode,” he added.
According to Deadline, several of HBO’s Game of Thrones’ official titles have been featured in the Guinness World Records 2018 and 2019 editions utilizing Parrot.