Game of Thrones season seven premiere is a major ratings hit
Millions tuned in to watch Dragonstone – both in the US and in the UK
More Brits than ever stayed up well past bedtime on Sunday night to watch Game of Thrones, giving Sky Atlantic its largest live audience for a simulcast in history.
The first episode of season seven, Dragonstone, also broke the channel's record for largest overnight audience for a GoT episode.
115,000 stayed up for the 2am simulcast with the US, while less impatient fans caught up the next day – bringing the total figure for the episode up to 2.04 million through recordings and on demand.
A further 788,000 tuned in for the repeat at the more UK-friendly time of 9pm on Monday 17th July.
Count up all the people who watched the episode from a recording in the first 24 hours and you get a grand total of 2.83 million, the largest overnight audience for a Game of Thrones episode in Sky Atlantic's history.
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And it seems the hype around Game of Thrones only grows with each season, as that figure is 30% higher than for the launch of season six.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Game of Thrones notched up 16.1 million viewers for the season premiere – its biggest overnight audience by far.
Including repeats and streaming, the HBO show made an audience increase of 50% from last year's season opener.
Will season seven have record ratings – or is it just the season premiere that has people tuning in?
