Could Game of Thrones season 8 reach 15 million viewers?

Game of Thrones season 8 is not premiering on HBO until 2019 (more than likely), but CarterMatt is already thinking about what it’s ratings are going to be.

One of the big questions for us is just how high can the ratings for this series possibly go? The ratings for season 7 were enormous — not only that, but in the 18-49 demographic it’s the top scripted show of the year. It’s easily toppling The Walking Dead at this point, and the recent season 7 finale drew both a 5.7 rating in the demo to go along with 12.1 million viewers. We know that the demo ratings don’t quite matter for a subscriber-based network like HBO, but they’re still interesting by comparison and for pop-culture relevancy.

Game of Thrones saw a massive year-to-year increase in viewers for season 7 and when you consider the wait between now and season 8, there’s a perfectly good reason to think that the show will surge again.

For one, there are only six episodes and as a result of that, there will likely be more of an incentive than ever before for some viewers to want to watch live. If they think that they’re nearing the end of the road, they’re not going to want to miss a single episode. Beyond just that, there’s a reason to watch out of fear alone — if they go to work the next day without seeing it there’s a reasonably good chance someone will spoil the show for them.

Beyond just that, this gives everyone even more of a chance to catch up on the show. We know that it’s not easy watching 67 hours of television (which is roughly how much content is out there at this point), but if you love a show enough you find a way. Also, even if you just watched 20 minutes of Game of Thrones a day you could get through the entire series and still have several months to spare before the show comes back.

Game of Thrones has already become the most-successful series in HBO history, and when you think about the long-hiatus coupled with final-season surges for a show like Breaking Bad, seeing Game of Thrones hit around 15 million viewers weekly seems to be very much within the realm of possibility.

What do you think the Game of Thrones season 8 ratings could be? Are we setting the goal too high? Share in the comments below!

Meanwhile, take a look over here for some other fun Game of Thrones highlights and like CarterMatt on Facebook to receive more news. (Photo: HBO.)