A new figure of HBO royalty has been crowned.
"Euphoria," the edgy and emotional smash-hit series, is now the network's second-most watched television show since 2004, only trailing behind "Game of Thrones."
According to a report by entertainment publication Variety, the second season of "Euphoria" averaged 16.3 million viewers per episode. 6.6 million people tuned in on Feb. 27 alone for the season's Sunday night finale, which was the average amount of viewers of the show's entire first season.
Aside from "Game of Thrones", —which averaged a whopping 46 million viewers in its last season—these ratings surpassed all other HBO shows throughout the past 18 years to climb to the runner-up spot on the network. HBO itself is raking in followers, ending 2021 with 73.8 million global subscribers and an expansion into 46 new countries with the help of its new HBO Max streaming service that launched in May 2020.
"Euphoria," which stars several famous young faces like Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney, significantly upped its own ante throughout its highly-anticipated second season.
According to Variety, the show's "per-episode viewership average was already up nearly 100% from its first season after airing just its first four episodes of the second season." "Euphoria" also held the top spot on the U.S. HBO Max platform for seven weeks in a row.
The show broke its own records on social media as well.
The Guardian reported "Euphoria" is now the most-tweeted-about show in the current decade that began in 2020 (which, accounting for the amount of time people spent on screens during the pandemic, is saying a lot).
So far, 34 million tweets discuss "Euphoria" in the United States alone.
The often explicit and triggering show follows a group of high schoolers navigating the pains of youth and relationships amid the classic narrative trio of sex, love and drugs. It specifically hones in on Zendaya's character Rue and her ongoing struggles with drug addiction.
Zendaya herself warned fans before the second season released, noting the show deals with difficult material.
"I do want to reiterate to everyone that ‘Euphoria’ is for mature audiences," she wrote on Instagram. "This season, maybe even more so than the last, is deeply emotional and deals with subject matter that can be triggering and difficult to watch. Please only watch it if you feel comfortable.”
"Euphoria" was adapted from an Israeli program of the same name by Sam Levinson.
