--- title: Game of Thrones' New Finale Record Proves It's Consensus TV description: Game of Thrones' ratings exploded during the Sunday night finale, proving that it is the last show to capture the collective imagination canonical: https://time.com/4385886/game-of-thrones-final-record-ratings/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-28T17:34:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:54:43.090Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Game of Thrones Finale's Record Ratings Proves It's the Last Consensus Show og:description: The HBO drama is the last show to capture the collective American imagination og:url: https://time.com/4385886/game-of-thrones-final-record-ratings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa91e6f44d06b8c7/698899bb8e060104d8466782/cersei-lannister.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Game-of-Thrones-S6-E10 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game of Thrones Finale's Record Ratings Proves It's the Last Consensus Show twitter:description: The HBO drama is the last show to capture the collective American imagination twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa91e6f44d06b8c7/698899bb8e060104d8466782/cersei-lannister.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Game of Thrones_ Finale Ratings Record Proves It's the Last Consensus Show on TV > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 28, 2016 5:34 PM UTC  HBO  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Jun 28, 2016 5:34 PM UTC Much [like the Sept](http://time.com/4383213/game-of-thrones-season-six-finale/), _Game of Thrones_‘ ratings exploded on Sunday night during the show’s [season six finale](http://time.com/4383171/game-of-thrones-season-six-review/). Sunday’s show was [watched](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/06/28/game-thrones-finale-ratings-6) by 8.9 million people, a new high for the HBO drama. By comparison, the season five finale was watched by 8.1 million. Adding streaming, DVR recordings and repeat showings, the show averaged over 23 million viewers _per episode_, up 15% from last year, according to _Entertainment Weekly_. In part, that’s thanks to the HBO Now platform, which allows people who don’t pay for HBO on cable to purchase a streaming subscription. Viewing of this season of _Game of Thrones_ on HBO Now and HBOGo numbers shot up over 70% from last year. The numbers are record-setting for the show (and HBO), but they also solidify _Game of Thrones_‘ stance as the last appointment-viewing show on television. Anyone who doesn’t watch the night it airs — even the hour it airs — will likely be spoiled on social media before they get a chance to catch up. This is also true of some other dramas, including AMC’s _Walking Dead_ and ABC’s _Scandal_. But the viewership for both those shows dropped this last season. (_Walking Dead_ _‘_s latest season finale had a [total viewership](http://deadline.com/2016/04/the-walking-dead-ratings-season-6-finale-down-amc-1201732195/) of 14.2 million, down from 15.8 the year before; _Scandal_ had its [lowest season finale to date](http://www.thewrap.com/scandal-big-bang-theory-2-broke-girls-season-finale-tv-ratings-cbs-abc/) with 5.97 million viewers). Meanwhile, heading into what are likely its last two seasons, _Game of Thrones_ is growing. Consensus television didn’t used to be strange. In 1983, 125 million people tuned in to the series finale of _M\*A\*S\*H_. In 1993, 93.5 million people bid farewell to the _Cheers_ gang. And in 2004, 65.9 million people watched the cast of _Friends_ take their last bow. Indeed, _Friends_ averaged about 25 million viewers per episode its last season, a feat not even _Thrones_ could dream of today. Thanks to the rise of cable channels like AMC and FX and streaming services like Netflix and Amazon, television audiences have been getting smaller and smaller and viewers are more and more divided between shows. The result has been plenty of commendable series created for niche audiences, but few shows that can capture the public imagination as a whole in the way that _Game of Thrones_ does. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4385886/game-of-thrones-final-record-ratings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4385886/game-of-thrones-final-record-ratings/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Finale Ratings Record Proves It's the Last Consensus Show on TV","datePublished":"2016-06-28T17:34:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:54:43.090Z","description":"The HBO drama is the last show to capture the collective American imagination","url":"https://time.com/4385886/game-of-thrones-final-record-ratings/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa91e6f44d06b8c7/698899bb8e060104d8466782/cersei-lannister.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa91e6f44d06b8c7/698899bb8e060104d8466782/cersei-lannister.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Game-of-Thrones-S6-E10","caption":"","creditText":"HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4385886/game-of-thrones-final-record-ratings/","name":"Game of Thrones Finale Ratings Record Proves It's the Last Consensus Show on TV"}}]}] ```