The Last of Us has now overtaken House of the Dragon for viewers

The Last of Us has officially taken over the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon in viewership numbers.

So don't be surprised if you hear of a Targaryen uttering 'dracarys' and setting a dragon on the entire cast of the hit-HBO show.

After all, the quote does go: "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."

So we can't see any Targaryen being too thrilled about being toppled by a usurper.

The season one finale of The Last of Us brought in the show’s biggest audience to date, with the episode clocking up a massive 8.2 million viewers across all platforms for HBO, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

That number was up slightly from the figures a week prior, which touted a total of 8.1 million viewers.

It was also an opening-night high for the nine-episode first season of the video game adaptation.

According to HBO, The Last of Us’ first six episodes averaged out at 30.4 million viewers since the January 15 premiere.

The debut episode came in at a staggering 40 million viewers, which is nearly double the entire population of Australia.

Impressive stuff.

HBO

Those figures now place the The Last of Us above another of HBO's epic tales, House of the Dragon.

House of the Dragon averaged 29 million cross-platform viewers over the course of its run in the late summer and fall of 2022.

However, figures are not yet finalised by HBO as the full tally is not yet in for the final three episodes of The Last of Us.

The Last of Us’ cumulative audience of 30.4 million is the largest total viewership since the widely slammed final season of Game of Thrones averaged just over 44 million viewers back in 2019.

And, just like House of the Dragon show runners promised their fans, The Last of Us creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have vowed more action will come in the show's second season.Oh, and 'a lot more infected', if anyone was worried about a lack of action in season one.

The same concerns were expressed about House of the Dragon, but showrunner Ryan Condal has teased there is significant action to come.

"We will get to the spectacle," Condal said. "But you have to understand these people’s complexities before they’re thrown into war," he explained.

Both shows have been renewed for a second season.