Game of Thrones season 8 episode 5: The Bells becomes most watched episode in show's history

More than 18m people have watched The Bells

Clémence Michallon
New York
Wednesday 15 May 2019 15:08 BST
Comments
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 6 Preview

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Warning: the story below contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season eight episode five.

Game of Thrones' penultimate episode has become the most watched in the show's history.

The Bells, the fifth episode in the fantasy drama's eighth and final season, drew 18.4m viewers across all of HBO's platforms, according to numbers provided by the network.

This tops the previous record established by The Long Night, the third episode in season eight, which was watched by 17.8m people.

The Bells also broke a record during the initial broadcast, attracting 12.5m viewers. This metric, known as linear viewership, reflects numbers during the TV broadcast and does not include on-demand services.

The previous record from that standpoint belonged to the season seven finale The Dragon and the Wolf, which had 12.1m linear viewers.

Game of Thrones' final episode ever will air this Sunday. Its title isn't yet known.

Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

The show is available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK, and on HBO in the US.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in