Game of Thrones final season the most anticipated TV event of streaming generation

The Game of Thrones finale is the most anticipated TV event in years and by far the biggest moment of the streaming generation. Here’s how the world is responding to watching the last hours in Westeros. 

It’s taken 67 episodes and 4000 pages of George R.R. Martin’s iconic books, but at long last the end of Game of Thrones is finally here with season eight airing from today — meaning there’s only six episodes to watch until winter has come and gone forever.

Monday’s debut drew a record breaking audience for the series and ignite a social media firestorm.

More than 12 million viewers tuned in to the season seven finale, with 4 million more streaming it the same night and many millions more in the following days.

Monday’s night premiere attracted up to 20 million live viewers and the final episode ever is expected to smash paid television finale records.

In comparison, the biggest TV finale events were all aired for free.

The last episode of MASH — considered the most watch TV series finale of all time — attracted more than 105 million views in 1983. 

The final of Cheers in 1993 missed it by that much with 84 million.

Friends was nowhere near that when it wrapped up in 2004 hitting 52 million and Seinfeld got 76 million viewers for its goodbye ep in 1998. 

Foxtel, who has teamed up with HBO for Australian streaming rights said they’ve seen “an unprecedented increase in sales that has eclipsed any other time for new registrations” to the Foxtel Now.