LogInThat's despite the Season 1 finale airing at the same time as the 2023 Oscars.
HBO's The Last of Us Season 2 has finally ended, leaving the aftermath similar to the one its source material left back in 2020 – millions of fans confused about the direction the sequel chose to take. And just like a game's success can, in most cases, be measured by its number of sold copies, a TV show's success can be gauged by its viewership numbers, and by that metric, Season 2 has severely underperformed compared to Season 1.
HBO
According to HBO (via The Wrap), the Season 2 finale only drew 3.7 million cross-platform viewers, less than half of what Season 1's finale achieved with 8.2 million cross-platform viewers, marking a significant 55% drop.
HBO itself attributes the decline to lower holiday weekend viewership – Memorial Day in the US – and expects the numbers to rise, noting that the franchise has reached 90 million viewers since the end of Season 1, with Season 2 averaging nearly 37 million global viewers per episode.
While it's unclear whether Memorial Day actually impacted viewership, it's worth noting that the Season 1 finale aired during the 2023 Oscars and still significantly outperformed Season 2's ending, so whether the network's explanation holds up or is just an attempt at damage control is up to everyone to decide for themselves.
Even if HBO's explanation is accurate, it seems unlikely that Season 2's finale will surpass Season 1's, even in the long run, as the overall sentiment toward the show remains mixed to negative. Currently, Season 2 is rated 4.0/10 on Metacritic and 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, with viewers criticizing the story and writing, actor performances, questionable casting, pacing, and, naturally, the killing of Joel in Episode 2, while commending the set design and the show's faithfulness to the source material.
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