'The Last Of Us' Season 2 Finale Viewership Down Over 54% From Season 1

May 27, 2025

Warner Bros. Discovery reported that its Season 2 finale for The Last of Us was down over 54% compared to the Season 1 finale.

In a press release, Warner Bros. Discovery revealed that the Season 2 finale drew 3.7 million cross-platform viewers on HBO and HBO Max. That is down from 54.8% compared to the Season 1 finale where the company revealed brought in 8.2 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts back in March 2023.

Warner Bros. Discovery attempted to explained the huge decline claiming it was down “due to low viewing levels over the Memorial Day holiday weekend.” The company did go on to claim that the second season saw its global viewers per episode in Season 2 increase from 32 million in Season 1 to 37 million in Season 2. It noted that the global audience has exceeded over 90 million.

Additionally, the finale viewership is down over 30% from the Season 2 premiere, which Warner Bros. Discovery reported attracted 5.3 million viewers.

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Aside from Warner Bros. Discovery’s data points, other data points indicate the show has seen its audience fall off. US TVDB notes that the linear viewership has declined from an average of 1.083 million in the back half of the first season to a low of just 652,000 for the second season episode airing on May 11, 2025. That’s nearly a 40% decline.

Looking at recent Nielsen data, the show attracted 805 million minutes watched for the week of April 14th through April 20th. That’s the week of the show’s second episode, but likely includes quite a bit of Season 1 given the show releases on a Sunday and Nielsen tracks from Monday to Sunday.

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For the week of April 21st through April 27th, the last week that Nielsen has posted publicly, the show attracted 937 million minutes watched. That’s an increase of 16.4%.

The decline in viewership for the Season 2 finale has been accompanied with a decline in the show’s audience scores. On Rotten Tomatoes, the Popcornmeter, which was previously called the Audience Score, sits at a rotten 39%. In contrast, the first season had an 86% rating. The show’s overall rating is a 63%.

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On IMDb, the show has an 8.6 overall score, but the Season 2 episodes all have much lower ratings compared to the first season. The first season averaged an 8.6 rating. The second season has an average rating of 7.4.