--- title: Game of Thrones Season 7 Ratings: Most Watched Premiere description: The "Game of Thrones" season 7 premiere was the biggest overnight audience ever. canonical: https://time.com/4861709/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-ratings/ author: Madeline Farber article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-17T21:21:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:35:43.760Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Game of Thrones' Just Had Its Biggest Episode Ever og:description: Boasting a 50% increase from last year's season 6 premiere og:url: https://time.com/4861709/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-ratings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fdec15903ca9772/6988d5f922fb853776e21fc0/game-of-thrones-dragonstone-daenerys-targaryen-tyrion-lannister-missandei-varys-grey-worm.jpg?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-dragonstone-daenerys-targaryen-tyrion-lannister-missandei-varys-grey-worm og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Game of Thrones' Just Had Its Biggest Episode Ever twitter:description: Boasting a 50% increase from last year's season 6 premiere twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fdec15903ca9772/6988d5f922fb853776e21fc0/game-of-thrones-dragonstone-daenerys-targaryen-tyrion-lannister-missandei-varys-grey-worm.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Game of Thrones_ Just Had Its Biggest Episode Ever by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Jul 17, 2017 9:21 PM UTC  Nathalie Emmanuel, Peter Dinklage, Conleth Hill, Emilia Clarke and Jacob Anderson in Game of Thrones Nathalie Emmanuel, Peter Dinklage, Conleth Hill, Emilia Clarke and Jacob Anderson in Game of ThronesMacall B. Polay—HBO by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Jul 17, 2017 9:21 PM UTC After its much anticipated return,[ _Game of Thrones_ ](http://time.com/4860687/game-of-thrones-arya-stark-faceless/)came back with a bang: The show reported its biggest overnight audience of all time. [_Entertainment Weekly_](http://ew.com/tv/2017/07/17/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-ratings-smash-records/?utm%5Fcampaign=entertainmentweekly&utm%5Fsource=twitter.com&utm%5Fmedium=social&xid=entertainment-weekly%5Fsocialflow%5Ftwitter) reports that the series’ season 7 premiere delivered 16.1 million views across all of HBO’s platforms, including repeats, streaming and DVR. That’s also a 50% increase from last year’s season 6 premiere, according to _EW_, when the average was 7.9 million viewers sans streaming. The news comes after [HBO](http://time.com/4846878/sophie-turner-on-dating-joe-jonas/) decided to air a new season in the summer for the first time — when the number of households watching TV is lower than in the spring, when the show usually premieres, notes _EW._ Additionally, the show’s season 7 premiere is officially its most re-tweeted episode ever, boasting 2.4 million tweets. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4861709/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-ratings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4861709/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-ratings/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Just Had Its Biggest Episode Ever","datePublished":"2017-07-17T21:21:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:35:43.760Z","description":"Boasting a 50% increase from last year's season 6 premiere","url":"https://time.com/4861709/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-ratings/","keywords":["onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fdec15903ca9772/6988d5f922fb853776e21fc0/game-of-thrones-dragonstone-daenerys-targaryen-tyrion-lannister-missandei-varys-grey-worm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeline Farber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fdec15903ca9772/6988d5f922fb853776e21fc0/game-of-thrones-dragonstone-daenerys-targaryen-tyrion-lannister-missandei-varys-grey-worm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"game-of-thrones-dragonstone-daenerys-targaryen-tyrion-lannister-missandei-varys-grey-worm","caption":"Nathalie Emmanuel, Peter Dinklage, Conleth Hill, Emilia Clarke and Jacob Anderson in Game of Thrones","creditText":"Macall B. 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