And as you can imagine, the decline began to occur after its biggest show, “Game of Thrones” ended in May 2019.
The United States television network HBO (Home Box Office), which serves an audience spread all over the world, has suffered a sharp decline in its annual viewership in 2020 in the aftermath of the ending of one of the greatest television show on planet earth (arguably not better than Breaking Bad), which happened in May 2019.
The David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ series pulled the audience for HBO like a magnet. The streaming service used to stream hit series like “The Sopranos,” but there is nothing on the platform that can even think of competing with the viewership of Game of Thrones.
A report has emerged courtesy of Variety that has revealed that almost half of the R-Rated audience (adult audience, i.e., aged between 18 to 49) refrained from watching anything on HBO. Furthermore, the number of paid subscriptions also witnessed a drop of 38 percent in the viewership.
It is imperative to understand that the data shown by Variety is a reflection on traditional viewing only, i.e., viewers that are watching shows via the traditional mode within the scheduled time. The report does not take into account the number of viewers that have opted for the “On-Demand” or catch-up routes.
It can also be stated that it is not only HBO that has experienced a decline in viewership, other premium services such as Starz and Showtime have also noted a plummet in the viewership (almost 16 or 19 percent).
Some reports have emerged on the internet, which have suggested that the executives working at HBO had high anticipation with the 3rd season of Westworld, but the Jonathan Nolan series though solidly rated and a hit among a section of the audience, has never been able to capture the imagination of people as much as Game of Thrones had back in the day.
The Emilia Clarke and Kit Harrington starrer was nothing short of global TV phenomena when it ran on HBO from 2011 to 2019.
The series was an onscreen adaptation of a book series “A Song of Ice and Fire” written by George RR Martin. Game of Thrones did break a lot of records for not only HBO but also for Sky Atlantic (a streaming network that aired the show in the United Kingdom).
Albeit a series of cancellations of its prequels, there is one that has managed to get the nod of HBO. The prequel series “House of the Dragon” will arrive on HBO Max in 2022.
Game of Thrones was also a sweeper at Emmys. Its lead actor Peter Dinklage won the Outstanding actor award almost three times in a row (if I am not wrong). Despite the varying opinion on its last season, the cast has been lauded for its performance in all the seasons. The show threw its lead actors Emilia Clarke, Kit Harrington, and Nikolaj Coster Waldau to the soaring heights of popularity.
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