Last Of Us Shows Remarkable Staying Power With Episode 4 Viewer Growth

The Last of Us’ episode 4 viewership hits another new high for the HBO series despite some big competition from the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.

The Last of Us episode 4 viewership hits another series high. Since premiering last month, the television adaptation of Naughty Dog’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic video game has proven to be HBO’s next prestige series and true appointment TV. Shortly after its record-breaking premiere, The Last of Us season 2 was promptly renewed by HBO, solidifying its place on the premium cable channel.

Now, The Last of Us episode 4 has set yet another series high in viewership. On Sunday, a total of 7.5 million viewers tuned into the fourth episode on HBO and HBO Max, as confirmed by the network and streaming service. This impressive total is a 17 percent increase from The Last of Us episode 3, which set a previous series high in viewership and received widespread acclaim.

Related: Who Snuck Up On Joel & Ellie In The Last Of Us Episode 4

The Last of Us Viewership Keeps Growing Despite Big Competition

This is the second week in a row The Last of Us has set a series high in viewership despite some big competition. The Last of Us episode 3, which took a detour from Joel and Ellie to focus on Bill and Frank’s emotional love story, set the then-record viewership with 6.4 million viewers. The widely acclaimed episode went up against the NFL’s AFC Championship game, which was watched by a whopping 53 million viewers.

The Last of Us episode 4, which returns to Joel and Ellie’s story and introduces several new characters, has now set another series high in viewership despite going head-to-head with the 65th annual Grammy Awards. The CBS telecast was watched by a total of 12.4 million viewers, which wasn’t enough to stop the post-apocalyptic show’s audience from growing. The Last of Us viewership has now grown every week since its premiere, proving it has remarkable staying power. HBO noted The Last of Us episode 4’s numbers are a 60 percent increase from the show’s January premiere.

While The Last of Us‘ viewership has kept growing despite some big competition, it won’t even attempt to go head-to-head with the Super Bowl, the most-watched television event of the year. To avoid competition with the big game, The Last of Us episode 5 has moved up from its usual Sunday night time slot to Friday. It will be interesting to see if the HBO show can continue to grow its audience with the time change.

More: The Last Of Us Episode 4 Ending Explained

Source: HBO & HBO Max