The Last of Us was a massive hit when it first launched into the marketplace on the PlayStation 3. Naughty Dog kept the hype train going with a remastered release not long after for the PlayStation 4. Again, players were tossed into a thrilling narrative that played out much like a cinematic experience. Fortunately, the game received a proper adaptation for a live-action series. Normally, when players find that their favorite video games are being adapted into a film or series, there’s plenty of eye-rolling.
Typically these adaptations stray too far away from the source materials, which makes sit difficult to get behind. Fortunately, the work that went into The Last of Us didn’t follow that trend as the production stuck incredibly close to the source material. Even Naughty Dog played a big role in ensuring the series followed the game or expanded the storyline in ways that fit into the content already established. Ultimately, this resulted in a ton of praise from veteran players that enjoyed the video game, along with complete newcomers to the IP.
Now new data has popped up from Warner Bros. Discovery. Twitter user DomsPlaying showcased Q1 2023 highlights for the series in correlation to The Last of Us. Apparently, the average for each episode in this series for the United States was nearly 32 million. But outside of the United States, HBO Max found that this series was the most-watched show in series history for Europe and Latin America. It just goes to show just how much video game narratives can reach consumers that might not particularly enjoy games.
Going on with a few more stats, it seems that the HBO Max series have found even more subscribers joined in on the series during Q1 2023. In Q4 2022, the service saw only 54.6 million subscribers but in Q1 2023; the subscribers rose to 55.3 million. That uptick might have been from just the immense success of The Last of Us. Of course, now the focus for fans is news on The Last of Us Part II. The next season is in the works, although we already know that this next season won’t contain all of the second-game narrative. With the second game having a bit of a division with fans, it should be interesting to see how fans take up with the adaptation and if there will be any slight adjustments to the storyline.
