Because Live+Same Day ratings don't matter an iota to the network's business plan, HBO has abandoned formal announcements Live+SD ratings, so Monday (April 27) morning represented HBO's first enthusiastic reveal of numbers for the April 12 premiere of “Game of Thrones.”
Including linear plays, Live+7 DVR data, HBO OnDemand, HBOGo and HBO Now, the fifth season premiere of “Game of Thrones” has attracted 18.1 million viewers to date, up by 1.2 million from last year's premiere within the same period of time. Of course, HBO Now didn't exist a year ago, but last year the first four episodes weren't leaked illegally ahead of time.
Last season, “Game of Thrones” episodes averaged a gross audience of 19.1 million viewers, which encompassed a longer window of potential viewership.
The bottom line is that you probably shouldn't make too much of this, but if you want some sort of in-progress sense of how “Game of Thrones” is doing, the answer is, “well.”
Meanwhile, HBO announced that including all of the various things that were mentioned above, “Silicon Valley” has drawn 5.7 million viewers to-date for its second season premiere. On one hand, that's up only a tiny bit (300,000) from last year's premiere airing in the same window, but last year's season average gross audience was only 5.8 million viewers, which seems pretty accessible.
The “Veep” Season 4 premiere has drawn 4 million viewers to-date, in line with last year's premiere. The third season had a gross audience of 4.5 million viewers per episode.
Of interesting note, HBO says that “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” has drawn a gross audience of 6.8 million viewers to-date, making it the second most-watched documentary in HBO history. The most-watched? “Beyonce: Life Is But a Dream,” naturally. It drew a gross audience of 8.9 million viewers in 2013.