HBO's hit fantasy drama Game of Thrones closed out its fourth season strong in TV ratings on Sunday night, finishing off a season that broke its own most-watched records several times.
The first telecast of "The Children" at 9 p.m. drew 7.1 million viewers, which is a 32 percent boost from last season's finale. With two other airings added in, Game of Thrones averaged 9.3 million viewers for the evening, which is a 37 percent boost over the third season closing episode.
The whole season has been strong for the epic HBO drama, managing to average 18.6 million viewers every week spread across all the platforms it's available on.
While the finale numbers are great, and when combined with all the telecasts, the strongest overall audience to date, the initial 9 p.m. airing falls a bit short of episodes earlier in the season. Episode eight managed 7.2 million, which remains the most-watched initial telecast to date and beat out the previous week's high. The episode pulled in a lower combined audience of 8.2 million when additional viewings are tallied up.
Ratings for many of HBO's Sunday night fare have done well this year, with freshman comedy Silicon Valley, averaging 5.7 million viewers, to be the premium cable network's most-watched half-hour program.
The latest season of Veep was also up, averaging 4.6 million viewers, while Last Week Tonight With John Oliver has averaged 4 million viewers.
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