TLOU Season 2 Finale Viewership Drops 55% From Season 1 Finale

Dr. Samuel Hayden

Dr. Samuel Hayden

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The Last of Us Season 2's seventh and final episode premiered on HBO Max (or whatever it's being called right now) on Sunday, drawing mixed reception from critics and audiences. That mixed reception is apparently being reflected in the show's viewership numbers as well.


Reported by Variety, The Last of Us Season 2's recent finale drew in 3.7 million viewers across all platforms. That's down 55 percent from the 8.2 million viewers the show had with its Season 1 finale in 2023. In comparison, the second season's premiere in April saw 5.3 million day one viewers, which was a 10 percent increase on the season one finale.
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gamingbolt.com

The Last of Us Season 2 Finale Viewership Was Roughly Half of Season 1 Finale

Season 2 of HBO's adaptation drew in 3.7 million cross-platform viewers with its finale, down 55 percent from the Season 1 finale's 8.2 million viewers.
gamingbolt.com gamingbolt.com
 
whoops GIF
 
I actually really enjoyed the game and replay it often (such as now) because I like it so much. I also enjoyed the first season of the show - didn't love it but definitely enjoyed it. This season, I only made it 2 or 3 episodes because of how much I DIDNT like it. The casting, the directorial choices and the performances were awful. It was too contrived and forced with the acting choices it just became cringe.
 
Season 1 was very mediocre but it was still okay to have running while doing other stuff. In season 2 I barely made it to episode 3 before I gave up on that crap.
The memes this trainwreck spawned are higher quality than the script and acting performances....
 
I checked out half way through season 1. Looked like really well done sets, but poor everything else. Poor acting, story, action scenes, casting.

Only thing that was good that I saw was the Bill episode simply because they managed to create two characters with a story for the first time. That's how low the bar was. Paid for HBO, went through Chernobyl and enjoyed, and didn't even want to finish TLOU.

Hard to tell with all the exaggeration and anti-woke people, but it sounds like season 2 is even worse. I do like Kaitlyn Dever though but she's in other stuff.
 
Kinda already knew this would happen.

The show isn't backed by the amazing game mechanics so it just relies on writing and story which personally sucked ass. There is no catharsis just endless disappointment.
 
Chuck Berry said:
Really? I checked out after the second episode of season 1 and one of the reasons was because the sets looked so cheap, especially for an HBO show.
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Sets looked okay. Some of it was shot in Kansas City, and they got the decayed look and moss or whatever. But they go a little overboard on the color grading that's for sure. I was trying hard to find something to give a compliment to while watching S1. Everyone was acting like it was the best show ever made with cultural impact surpassing Mario (lol), so I felt like I was taking crazy pills. But yeah, I thought the sets were pretty good I guess. Maybe I was being too generous.
 
HBO's "The Last of Us" Season 2 finale aired to half the audience that tuned into the Season 1 finale of the video game adaptation, as Sunday's season closer saw 3.7 million cross-platform viewers. That's down 55% from the Season 1 finale, which scored 8.2 million cross-platform viewers, then an impressive feat given that it aired opposite the Oscars.
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HBO cautions that "The Last of Us" Season 2 finale viewership is expected to grow due to low tune-ins on the holiday weekend, and stressed that the franchise overall has seen 90 million viewers since Season 1 ended. Season 2 is tallying nearly 37 million global viewers per episode.
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https://www.thewrap.com/the-last-of-us-season-2-finale-viewership/
"The Last of Us" Season 2 finale viewership was only half of what tuned into the Season 1 finale of the HBO series.
www.thewrap.com
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Global rating numbers (which are the ones that matter the most) is at 37 million viewers per episode which for HBO is still quite high. Personally i enjoyed S2 and can't wait for S3 as i love the character of Abby.
 
That happens when you suddenly kill a character that people got attached to. They could have done it better by killing Joel near the end of part 2 in the story, and that, the story could be fleshed out more for the other characters. End it with a cliffhanger that Joel has been killed and so that the third game could focus more on Ellie's grief and her wanting revenge in that new game/story.

But ohwell we got this piece of mess lol
 
What did they expect to happen? The story after the first game is and always has been terrible.

What made people love the first game and season one of the show was the relationship between Joel and Ellie. Throw that away, add in new unlikeable characters with no depth, write one of the worst revenge stories of all time and put it altogether and no wonder fans have bailed.

At least the second game had amazing visuals, level design and gameplay, the show has nothing going for it.
 
Well, they are doing 3 more seasons I heard… but have no games to base them on so… either they are leaking the next game or they are going to fuck it up even more GoT style.

Excited Tom Hiddleston GIF by Marvel Studios
 
Maybe this will help Druckman realize that it wasn't just "toxic gamers" who thought his storytelling choices stunk in TLOU2. It is the TV/movie audience as well.

Nah, he'll just rationalize it away as the price of being a great artist or something.
 
"That's down 55 percent from the 8.2 million viewers the show had with its Season 1 finale in 2023. In comparison, the second season's premiere in April saw 5.3 million day one viewers, which was a 10 percent increase on the season one finale."

So the season 1 finale had ~4.7M day one viewers and season 2 had 3.7M. Question is how long did it take to hit 8.2M and has the season 2 finale had the same amount of time afforded to it? Otherwise what is the point of claiming 55%?
 
In comparison, the second season's premiere in April saw 5.3 million day one viewers, which was a 10 percent increase on the season one finale.
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Are they sure they aren't talking about season 1 premiere and just need to proof-read their articles?
As reported by Deadline, on Sunday, episode 1 of The Last of Us' second season had over 5.3 million viewers in the US across all platforms that the show streamed on. That's up from the Season 1 premiere in 2023 – which drew 4.7 million US viewers on day one – by 10 percent.
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KingHippo1967 said:
It's easy to put a spin on something to make it seem worse than it is. Variety notes that Season 2 is still averaging above Season 1.
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We won't find out until Wednesday for more context.

Episode 5 averaged 0.652k
Episode 6 averaged 0.701k

These are cable numbers. Most people watch the series on MAX.

If the numbers are much lower than Episode 6, then I would assume the decline is due to Memorial Day weekend.
 
I haven't seen the show, but every time I see a screenshot of the show's Ellie, it comes across as a very poor attempt at cosplay and I just can't even. No desire to watch it as a result. Maybe someone could deepfake it?
 
Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson are Joel & Ellie. They did such a great job with what they were given I cant watch the show without judging the hell out of it. It seems most people who played the 2nd game knew this was gonna happen, but those in charge said "Nah, it's fine!" 😑
 
I am somebody who loves the second game and considers it to be the best game of the 2020s so far and this season was a disappointment.
 
I thought Bella was fine in the first season, but she completely missed the mark on the character change Ellie has in part 2. The writing all around was a noticeable tier down from season 1, and I'm a fan of both games. Not sure what the hell happened.
 
Woggleman said:
I am somebody who loves the second game and considers it to be the best game of the 2020s so far and this season was a disappointment.
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I just browsed thelastofus reddit. They really enjoy the game, but they're really disappointed with Season 2.
 
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