The first season of HBO’s “The Last of Us” (read Meagan’s review) came to an end this past Sunday night, and we’ve learned that the finale was the most-watched episode to date.

Across HBO Max and linear telecasts, “The Last of Us” Season Finale drew in 8.2 million viewers, a new series high for the hit horror show. As we always make sure to note, Sunday night viewership only represents 20%-40% of a show’s total gross audience per episode.

Variety reports, “The first six episodes of the series are now averaging 30.4 million viewers, including ongoing viewership past initial airings, with Episode 1 alone approaching 40 million total viewers in the weeks since it debuted.”

Back in January, the series premiere of “The Last of Us” debuted to 4.7 million day-one viewers, which means the show’s audience nearly DOUBLED from premiere to season finale.

“The Last of Us” Season 2 has already been ordered by HBO, with the second season set to adapt the second video game. It’s possible the story will be spread across two seasons.

HBO’s “The Last of Us” takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”) stars in the series as Joel and Bella Ramsey (“Game of Thrones”) plays Ellie. Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate) plays Tommy, the brother of Pascal’s Joel. Storm Reid, Anna Torv, Jeffrey Pierce, Nick Offerman, Merle Dandridge, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett and Con O’Neil also star in the first season of the hit series.

Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) developed the series for HBO, and worked directly alongside Neil Druckmann to write and executive produce the small screen adaptation.