Game of Thrones Betting Odds
Game of Thrones was the most popular show in the history of HBO. While the company has had plenty of successful, critically acclaimed shows over its long history, none of them became quite the cultural phenomenon that Game of Thrones became over eight seasons. In an era where most consumers watch shows as they please, Game of Thrones was appointment viewing with the vast majority of viewers watching the show on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET to avoid spoilers.
Viewership
It was incredible to watch Game of Thrones’ ratings grow exponentially over eight seasons, and it is by far the most watched show in HBO history. The first season averaged just 2.5 million viewers, but as word of mouth spread, the audience grew larger and larger with each passing season. There were 3.8 million viewers on average in the second season, and the third season saw the viewership grow to nearly 5 million.
Those numbers kept ballooning as the series progressed. Season Six saw an average of 7.7 million viewers an episode, and Season Seven saw an incredible jump to almost 10.3 million viewers per episode. There were seven episodes in the seventh season (compared to 10 episodes in the previous six), and the shorter season only increased people’s appetite for Game of Thrones. The final season was only six episodes, but it averaged nearly 12 million viewers. Those were just the number of people that watched the television channel though, and if you include the people that were watching online or through the app, the series finale brought in a whopping 19.3 million viewers.
Background
Game of Thrones might have had the largest cast of any major television show ever. Hundreds of named characters have taken part in every season, so almost every fan has re-watched prior episodes in order to understand the constantly evolving story even better. There have typically been around a dozen story arcs to follow each season, but that number waned in the final couple seasons as the story was tied together.
The series is known for many things. It is one of the most violent shows on television, killing off scores of named characters over the course of its seven seasons. It is also known for its bawdy sex scenes and gratuitous nudity, with many comedians poking light at that fact. Game of Thrones is also known for its mixture of medieval history and fantasy, as both George R.R. Martin and the show’s creators (David Benioff and D.B. Weiss) have borrowed much from history and haven’t let the fantasy aspect affect it too much.
Much of the story was inspired by the War of the Roses. The wars between the House of Lancaster and the House of York embroiled England in constant strife for a little over three decades, and they eventually saw both houses die out after so much internal conflict. The same thing happened to many of the great houses in Westeros as Game of Thrones unfolded.
One of the biggest things that comes to mind when you think about Game of Thrones is that no character is safe. The series showed a willingness to kill off major characters that no other series has before, and newer series have already begun to emulate this. From the moment that Ned Stark died at the end of Season One, numerous deaths have stunned us and kept us coming back for more. Episodes that included scenes like the Red Wedding and Purple Wedding shocked viewers, and the turn of Daenerys Targaryen at the end of the series was so unexpected to many that parents that named their child “Daenerys” during the course of the show were left very upset by the end.
HBO has already stated that there will be multiple spinoffs of Game of Thrones. The first one that will be released is titled House of Dragons, and it is in development now. This show will focus on the House of Targaryen and their decision to come to Westeros more than 300 years before the events that transpired in Game of Thrones.
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