‘Game of Thrones’ season 5 finale sets another ratings record

Just in case you were wondering if “Game of Thrones” is still growing its overall audience size, we now have a pretty firm answer for you: It’s still happening!

Last night’s new installment “Mother’s Mercy,” otherwise known as the season 5 finale, ended up drawing more than 8.1 million viewers, which is a new record audience for the show. This show is really watched by far more than that throughout the week, especially since this rating does not fully factor in viewers from the HBO NOW / HBO GO app, repeats, or viewings on-demand that could happen throughout the week. Also, there are DVR figures that will need to be configured. What you really need to know more than anything else is that this show is continuing to be the most successful in the history of the network.

While the 18-49 demo ratings don’t matter as much to a network without advertisements, we’ll go ahead and tell you still that “Game of Thrones,” according to TVbythenumbers, scored a 4.1 rating there. For reference, that is a better rating than really any primetime network series on average, save for “Empire” and at times “The Big Bang Theory.” Sure, “The Walking Dead” is also still stronger on cable. When you remember, though, that this show requires a monthly subscription fee due to HBO, it is all the more impressive.

Season 6 of HBO should premiere once again in the spring, which in turn should give the network a chance to shatter some more records … at least if there are not too many people upset about what happened in regards to Jon Snow in the finale.

If you’ve missed some of our recent “Game of Thrones” finale coverage, head over now to the link here! Also, you can sign up to score some other throne-worthy TV news on all we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: HBO.)