Euphoria enters season 2 on HBO with biggest ratings yet

Euphoria drew some of its biggest ratings to date on HBO this weekend, and as a result of that we are starting to see more of a clearer picture in terms of where television viewing is headed.

Sunday night’s new episode (which contained an incredible story for Rue and Jules to go along with a Zendaya – Labrinth collaboration in the end) ended up drawing 1.2 million viewers when you factor in streaming numbers and replays on HBO. That’s the biggest total audience for any episode of the show so far. Here’s where things get even more interesting — per The Hollywood Reporter, Euphoria is averaging around 5.6 million viewers per episode. That’s a huge multiplier from its live viewing numbers — think ten times its live audience of around 560,000 viewers weekly. This is a bigger multiplier easily than Game of Thrones or Big Little Lies, which have larger live audiences but a smaller percentage of people watching later.

What we take away from the Euphoria numbers is that viewership among young people is going to keep shifting towards people watching shows at their own pace. This is HBO’s youngest-skewing show by far and it’s no surprise that a lot of its audience is opting to wait to see the show on its own terms. The total numbers are a clear reminder that there is an incredible thirst still for programming, but you don’t see it all that much anymore in live audiences. If Euphoria continues to bring in these numbers for season 2, HBO will be thrilled … and they’ll also probably greenlight the show for a season 3. Remember that the network doesn’t see this as a long-term series, but we could imagine it going for three or four years.

There is no premiere date yet for Euphoria season 2, but we would imagine that HBO will want it as soon as possible — without sacrificing quality. With this being a show set around high school, you don’t have the luxury of patience since the actors are only getting older and it will be progressively harder for them to play these characters forever.

Read more of our premiere date thoughts over at the link here.

What do you think about Euphoria’s finale ratings?

Do you think that these do showcase more the direction that television viewing is going in? Be sure to share right now in the comments, and remember to stick around for some other updates. (Photo: HBO.)