Game of Thrones season six breaks viewing records in the UK

The first episode of Season Six of Sky Atlantic’s Game of Thrones has smashed records to become the most watched Sky entertainment programme ever with almost five million views so far.  And this figure will continue to grow as customers take advantage of all the ways they can watch the show on demand.

Since it was first broadcast on 25 April there have been 3.8 million views of the opening episode via the Sky platform. This includes people who watched the 2am simulcast and 9pm showing live, plus any repeats of the episode, as well as customers who have watched on demand or through Sky+ recordings. In addition there have been around one million views of the episode through the Sky Go app and online streaming service NOW TV.

The five million views of episode one has smashed the previous record-holding episode, the finale of Game of Thrones Season 5. This delivered a cumulative audience of 3.27 million, and more than 400,000 views through Sky Go and NOW TV. 

And across Sky’s other territories in Europe, the audiences for Game of Thrones are also growing. Episode one of Season 6 on Sky Atlantic in Italy has been watched so far by an audience of 1.1 million, a 29% increase on the launch of Season 5. In Germany, the episode has already been viewed by 379,000, a 74% increase on the previous season.

The full figures for subsequent episodes of Season Six in the UK are still being calculated but the trend looks set to continue.  Episodes two and three delivered overnight audiences of 2.18 million and 2.24 million respectively.

Anticipation ahead of the launch of Season 6 resulted in millions of people catching up on Seasons 1 to 5 of the series through Sky Box Sets, with almost 10 million downloads in the past seven weeks.

Gary Davey, Managing Director, Content, Sky commented:“Across Europe, the Game of Thrones phenomenon continues to build. We’re so proud that through our partnership with HBO we can be part of it, as well as offer our customers the flexibility to watch their favourite show in a way that suits them best. Three years ago we declared Game of Thrones to be the best TV series of all time. And as these numbers demonstrate, the show just keeps getting better."