According to Deadline, popular video-game-turned-series The Last Of Us has jumped 22% from its premiere episode. The second episode aired this past Sunday and totaled 5.7 million viewers, compared to the 4.7 million that tuned in to the January 15 release, which made it the second biggest debut on HBO Max – behind Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon – and marks the largest growth in audience for an HBO Original show in its second week.
House of the Dragon debuted with 9.986 million viewers. Meanwhile, the first episode of Euphoria season two claimed with 2.4 million views last January; the second episode claimed 2.6 million. The Last of Us has surpassed hit young adult drama Euphoria with more than double the same-day audience, and is expected to beat Euphoria’s average of 19.5 million viewers per episode.
The Last Of Us, originally a Naughty Dog video game for PlayStation, follows survivor Joel Miller and fourteen-year-old Ellie Williams, played by Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones, Hilda), as they travel across an apocalyptic United States and find solace in each other while facing multiple dangers along the way. Craig Mazin, best known for his work on ten-time Emmy award winning HBO history drama Chernobyl, serves as the showrunner.
Ramsey recently shared a behind-the-scenes photo of episode two, featuring Ramsey, Pascal, and Anna Torv (Fringe, Mindhunter), who portrays Tess.
Other stars of the cast include Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Nick Offerman (Pam & Tommy, Parks and Recreation), Jeffrey Pierce (Bosch, God Friended Me), Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus, Noor), and Merle Dandridge (Station 19, Truth Be Told).
You can catch The Last Of Us on HBO Max. New episodes are released every Sunday. A teaser video for the third episode is available below.