'The Last Of Us' Season 2 Linear Cable Ratings Have Declined Nearly 20% In Just Three Episodes

May 02, 2025

The Last of Us Season 2 linear cable ratings have declined around 20% after just three episodes.

US TVDB reported that the first episode attracted 938,000 viewers. That number plummeted with the second episode, where Abby kills Joel, to 643,000. That’s a decline of over 31%.

However, the show’s viewership rebounded with the release of the third episode. It achieved 768,000 viewers. That’s an increase of 19% from the second episode, but it’s still a decline of over 18% from the first episode.

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These numbers come in the wake of Warner Bros. reporting that the Season 2 premiere attracted 5.3 million viewers across its various platforms. That was a 13% increase from the Season 1 premiere which totaled 4.7 million viewers back in January 2023.

Samba TV also noted that the show drew 1.1 million U.S. households for the Season 2 premiere, which they reported was 7% higher than the Season 1 premiere.

Samba TV also noted that the show topped its weekly chart for the week of April 14-20. That was up from the fifth position last week. The second episode aired on the 20th.

While the show increased in position, it’s unclear if viewership increased or if it declined similar to the linear numbers.

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The show does appear to have lost a number of viewers looking at the number of IMDb reviews. The first episode of Season 2 attracted 27,000. That massively increased to 42,000 for the second episode, but cratered to just 11,000 for the third episode.

Decent people should be boycotting the show given the directors in Season 1 admitted they were using the show to trick viewers into accepting Sodomitic relationships as normal.

Peter Hoar told Inverse, “Sometimes you have to sort of trick the rest of the world into watching these things before they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, it was two guys. I just realized.’ I think then they might understand that it’s all real. It’s just the same love.”

YouTuber Synthetic Man has also described the show as a tool “to shame us.”