Game of Thrones ratings improve significantly with “Hardhome”

For a while now, the real-time ratings for Game of Thrones’ fifth season have been on the decline (even as it sets record after record for piracy). After getting the best ratings of its five-year run with “The Wars to Come,” the show has seen its numbers slip, with last week’s Memorial Day Weekend episode clocking the lowest ratings since Season 3. Happily, the show’s fortunes seem to be turning around, as “Hardhome” was viewed by just north of 7 million people, which earned it a 3.4 rating among adults 18-49. That’s quite a jump over the 5.40 million who tuned in last week. In fact, those are the best numbers the show has pulled in since the premiere.

This uptick wasn’t entirely unexpected. After all, numbers were bound to be low on Memorial Day Weekend, when people had barbecues to go and second cousins to get reacquainted with. Still, this was a big jump—nearly 30% over last week.

The lack of strong competition may have had something to do with it. For the first time in a while, Game of Thrones didn’t have to contend with an NBA Playoff game on TNT—those games had been nipping at the show’s heels all season, and even surpassed it last week. This past Sunday, Game of Thrones’ closest cable competition was Keeping Up with the Kardashians over on E!, which pulled in around 2.4 million live viewers. There wasn’t anything particularly out-of-the-ordinary happening over on broadcast TV, either; no “event television” to steal Game of Thrones’ thunder.

Also, there’s the fact that “Hardhome” was just a really good episode of Game of Thrones. What’s more, it followed the equally solid “The Gift,” so perhaps people tuned in expecting to catch the show on the upswing. With two weeks left, I’m excited to see whether the show can keep this momentum going.

• Published on 06/02/2015 at 12:30 PM CDT
• Last updated on 06/02/2015 at 12:55 PM CDT