Game of Thrones bowed out with nearly 2 million viewers on Monday night as the HBO drama came to the end of its sixth season on Sky Atlantic.
The acclaimed fantasy series based originally on the books by George RR Martin had a total audience of 1.83 million, including 1.14 million who watched – live or recorded – its 2am simulcast, and 682,000 who watched it later at 9pm on Monday.
Its total audience is expected to double or even triple in the coming days and weeks as people watch the extended season finale on catch-up and on-demand.
The sixth season to date has averaged more than 5 million views per episode – up 41% on last year’s season five, according to Sky figures – cementing itself by some distance the most watched Sky entertainment programme ever.
The figure is not just its consolidated audience – people who watched it live or recorded it and watched it later – but also includes on-demand, via the Sky Go app and through online streaming service, Now TV.
Since March this year, Sky said there had been 16m downloads of seasons one to five of Game of Thrones through its Sky Box Sets service.
Abroad, the sixth season has averaged just over 1 million viewers on Sky in Italy, and just under 600,000 viewers on Sky in Germany.
