“Game of Thrones” Premiere Ratings Smash HBO Records

After the longest wait ever, Game of Thrones has returned in its full glory and smashed the viewing records. The season seven premiere episode was seen 16.1 million times within the first eight hours. This number includes repeats and streaming across HBO platforms.

This represents a 50 percent increase from last year’s first episode. This episode even topped the last season’s finale, which was the most-watched episode of the show until now.

The episode’s Rotten Tomatoes score was briefly 100% before it fell down to still impressive 95%