HBO
Prior to this year, it was pretty hard to ignore the supposed curse that has plagued the many creative minds who’ve attempted to adapt video games to a different visual medium only to leave plenty to be desired when everything was said and done.
However, it’s now pretty hard to argue that the jinx hasn’t been lifted thanks to The Last of Us.
The Last of Us was greeted by virtually universal critical acclaim when it was released on the PS3 in 2013, and the HBO series that was based on the first installment of the franchise garnered a similarly positive response over the course of its first season.
The show not only nailed the tone of the video game but stayed fairly loyal to the source material while simultaneously benefiting from a number of artistic tweaks (none of which were more notable than the third episode, which was easily the standout of the nine that comprised its initial run).
It was pretty clear HBO had a hit on its hands early on in the season, and the show didn’t really lose any steam heading into the finale that aired on Sunday night.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Acadamy Awards didn’t put much of a dent in the impressive ratings The Last of Us routinely racked up following its premiere on January 15th, as the 8.2 million people who tuned in on Sunday marked a same-night season-high for the show.
As the outlet notes, each episode of The Last of Us has attracted tens of millions of viewers who’ve thrown them on in the days and weeks after they first aired, and the data suggests the show has officially become HBO’s crown jewel when you compare it to another program that garnered a similar amount of interest last year.
Each episode of the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon lured in an average of 29 million viewers, but The Last of Us is on pace to break that mark when you consider its first six episodes have attracted an average of 30.4 million fans (40 million have given the pilot a shot as of this writing).
It appears we can expect at least a couple more seasons, as showrunner Craig Mazin recently said the show won’t attempt to tackle the entirety of the plot of The Last of Us 2 during its second run of episodes.