Fans agree that Game of Thrones’ sixth-season finale, “The Winds of Winter,” was an epic end to a fan-service-y season, and the episode earned the ratings to prove that.

Nearly nine million viewers tuned in to watch the finale on June 26, beating last summer’s season-five finale by nearly 800,000 viewers. Comparatively, the show’s first-season finale drew just 3 million viewers in live plus same day, while season 2 jumped to 4.2 million. By season 3, the audience had grown to 5.4 million, and by season 4, 7.1 million.

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The show’s consistent growth is testament to several factors: word of mouth; strong and constant marketing by HBO, even when the show is not in season; social media and viewers’ ability to catch up via on-demand and streaming services.

Over time, the numbers are much more impressive. Combining all views — original telecasts, DVR, encore runs, on-demand and streams on HBO Go and HBO Now — the show has been averaging 23.3 million weekly viewers.

HBO typically doesn’t report demographic ratings because it doesn’t air advertising, but The Hollywood Reporter notes that the season-six finale scored a 4.4 among adults 18-49, the third highest-rated scripted series in the demo behind AMC’s The Walking Dead and Fox’s Empire.

Game of Thrones is this year’s second most-watched scripted series on cable, also behind The Walking Dead, averaging more than 10 million viewers in live-plus-three viewing.

READ MORE: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety

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