Game of Thrones conquers own viewer record with The Long Night
More people watched the Battle of Winterfell than the season 8 premiere.
Daenerys and Jorah go to battle in The Long Night.
Game of Thrones features a lot of slaying on screen, but the HBO show is also doing damage to its own viewership records this season.
Episode 3, The Long Night, pulled in 17.8 million overnight viewers who watched the show on HBO and through streaming on HBO Go and HBO Now.
That number tops the previous record of 17.4 million who tuned in for the season 8 premiere. Compare that with 16.9 million watchers for the season 7 finale.
The overnight numbers are just the beginning. This season will likely surpass the 33 million-per-episode average from the previous season, according to Quentin Schaffer, executive vice president of corporate communications for HBO.
The Battle of Winterfell broke another record when it became the most tweeted episode in TV history, a Twitter flood that included what may be the most epic Game of Thrones tweets of all: a key scene set to Celine Dion singing the Titanic theme song.
There are three episodes left in season 8, so Game of Thrones still has a chance to set new viewer records as the struggle for the Iron Throne continues.
