The Last Of Us Has Hit An Incredible Billion Mark And Keeps On Going
The Last of Us has grown its audience with each episode, earning over 1 billion minutes watched over just the first four episodes.
The world of HBO’s The Last of Us may depict a grim post-apocalyptic future, but the series itself is getting nothing but good news. Deadline reported that the show has hit yet another milestone this week, nabbing over 1 billion minutes viewed. This puts it squarely in fourth place on the current Nielsen U.S. streaming list for the week of January 30 to February 5, above projects like Minions: The Rise of Gru and The Walking Dead.
Above The Last of Us on the list is New Amsterdam, which is currently streaming on both Netflix and Peacock, with 1.3 billion minutes viewed. Next is Netflix’s You People, which is at 1.6 billion minutes viewed. Sitting at the top of the stack is the MCU blockbuster Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with an impressive 2.3 billion minutes viewed.
This is an impressive feat for The Last of Us, considering the top two spots are movies (one of them being part of the biggest movie franchise in the world). Also, The Last of Us only had four episodes out when this Nielsen chart was measured, compared to New Amsterdam‘s 76 episodes. New Amsterdam‘s numbers are likely helped because it’s available on two streaming services.
With seven episodes of The Last of Us now available and the next episode set to hit HBO Max on Sunday, those numbers will surely shoot up in the coming weeks. The season will wrap up with its season 1 finale on March 12, so it will be interesting to see where the series stands after Nielsen factors in the numbers for that week. It seems inevitable that the HBO original will be sticking around in the top ten for the foreseeable future.
The Last of Us has been an undeniable success for HBO, although it may have seemed like a bit of a gamble then. Genuinely great video game adaptations are few and far between, but this series has knocked it out of the park. The show has managed to please both newcomers and fans of the games while providing new elements and story beats for the audience to enjoy.
It probably helps that The Last of Us put together such a great team. Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckman (the creator of the games) were the perfect choices to bring the series to life. They also picked a fantastic cast, with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey anchoring the series as Joel and Ellie.
Of course, the incredible success of The Last of Us means that we’re getting a second season, which will surely start to adapt the second game. It’s unclear at this point if the first season will wrap up all of the first game’s events, but it seems like fans are in good hands either way. While season 2 has been confirmed, there’s no official word yet on when we can expect to see it.
In the meantime, don’t expect The Last of Us‘s growing list of accolades to slow down anytime soon. Along with the commercial success, the series is also a favorite to get plenty of Emmy nods this year. We’ll keep you updated as the series continues its streak of success.
