Ratings: The Last of Us Opens Season 2 Up 13% vs. Series Premiere

After being off the air for more than two years, HBO’s The Last of Us on Sunday night returned to approximately 5.3 million U.S. cross-platform viewers, up nearly 13% from its series premiere.

Back on Jan. 15, 2023, HBO‘s adaptation of the popular video game franchise premiered to 4.7 million total viewers (across linear and HBO Max platforms in the U.S.), which at the time marked the pay cabler’s second-best series launch in more than 12 years — since Boardwalk Empire drew north of 7 million in September 2010.

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The Last of Us Season 1 enjoyed steady growth during its nine-episode run, with the finale delivering a series high of 8.2 million cross-platform U.S. viewers.

With delayed playback, the dystopian drama’s freshman run went on to average nearly 32 million viewers per episode, the largest audience for an HBO and Max debut season ever. In fact, ahead of the Season 2 premiere, catch-up viewing for the series saw +150% week-over-week growth.

TVLine readers gave The Last of Us‘ awaited Season 2 opener an average grade of “B+.”

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