The official trailer for The Last of Us Season 2 that premiered on Saturday at SXSW broke HBO viewership records. According to Warner Bros. Discovery (via Deadline), the trailer was viewed 158 million times across various platforms in just three days, a record for any HBO/Max original show in the same timeframe. It goes without saying that the trailer also outperformed previous trailers of the show itself by at least 160%.
It's not the first time the show has made news for its excellent viewership results. It was the second most-viewed HBO premiere of the last decade after George R.R. Martin's House of the Dragon, and it subsequently registered the biggest pilot-to-episode-two growth, capturing 5.7 million viewers in the United States when it first aired a couple of years ago.
According to WBD, Season 1 episodes have averaged around 32 million viewers to date in the United States, or around four times the same-day audience of the first season's finale episode, which also marked a record for same-day viewership with 8.2 million viewers.
Needless to say, there's a lot of anticipation ahead of the debut of The Last of Us Season 2, which will consist of seven episodes. The first of these airs on April 13 on HBO Max and the finale is scheduled for May 25.
The new season will adapt a portion of the plot gamers witnessed in The Last of Us Part II, with more to come in future seasons (showrunner Craig Mazin said there's material for at least one or two additional seasons). Franchise creator Neil Druckmann explained there will be some differences from the source material, which will soon also be available on PC when The Last of Us Part II Remastered hits the platform on April 3.
Druckmann also recently mused that a third entry in the gaming series may never come to pass, and his passion for Naughty Dog's new upcoming sci-fi IP points in that direction. On the other hand, perhaps the viewership numbers, if confirmed throughout the whole season, could sway Sony into asking him to make at least another game in the future.
The Last of Us Season 2 is set around five years after the finale of the debut season, with Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) grappling with the consequences of saving Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey). Other returning characters include Joel's brother Tommy (played by Gabriel Luna) and Maria (played by Rutina Wesley). There will be a lot of new characters, such as Kaitlin Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, Tati Gabrielle (who will also play the protagonist of Naughty Dog's upcoming game) as Nora, and Jeffrey Wright as Dixon, reprising his role from the game.
