“Game of Thrones” Season 7 finale is definitely a tv ratings' juggernaut as the popular show’s final episode, "The Dragon and The Wolf," reached a record-breaking viewership of 16.1 million according to reported Nielsen data.
However, the final episode, which eventually confirmed Jon Snow as a legitimate son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Lynna Stark, did not completely dominated the ratings' game as it was beaten by “MTV’s Video Music Awards” in the key demographic of teen viewers or those between 12-24 years of age.
Reported Nielsen numbers showed that this year’s VMA, hosted by pop star Katy Perry, had a greater total of teen viewers compared to “Game of Thrones” final episode with an estimated 309,000 12-24 audience.
In addition, the annual MTV award show also had an increase in the teen demographic compared to the 2016 VMA.
VMA dominated social media too
According to Billboard, the 2017 "MTV Video Music Awards" topped “Game of Thrones” season finale in social media as well. In Twitter, for instance, VMA beat GoT as the trending topic when the award show trended globally for 13 hours.
This year’s VMA also had eight of the top trending topics in the US, which included moments involving various top singers such as Ed Sheeran, Fifth Harmony, Miley Cyrus, and Taylor Swift who despite being absent in this year’s VMA, was able to dominate discussions with the release of her "Look What You Made Do" video during the awards night.
GoT’s record breaking ratings
In all other categories, however, “Game of Thrones” final episode was simply an unstoppable force. As the Night King toppled a big chunk of the once mighty wall at Eastwatch, The Dragon and the Wolf brought down existing tv ratings records set by GoT’s previous episodes.
Viewers who watched the final episode as it aired on HBO were put at 12.1 million making Season 7’s finale the most watched episode of “Game of Thrones” since the tv series began.
Compared to the "Winds of Winter," the final episode of GoT Season 6, which had 8.9 million viewers, the number of the viewers this time rose by 36 percent. In the important 18-49 demographic, GoT’s viewership also registered a 20 percent increase.
If the numbers include multiple platforms and delayed viewings, “Game of Thrones” Season 7 had an average of 30.6 million viewers per episode.
That translates to 35 percent increase or about 8 million viewers.
These are truly impressive numbers for “Game of Thrones” and HBO, which were beset by hackers breaching its network and the accidental broadcast of the episodes “The Spoils of War” and “Beyond The Wall” days before the scheduled air date.
