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
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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.

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