‘The Last Of Us’ Viewership Hits Another Series High With Episode 4 on HBO

The Last of Us delivered another series high on Sunday with 7.5M people tuning in across HBO and HBO Max.

That's a 17% increase from Episode 3's audience of 6.4M, despite Sunday's episode going head-to-head with the 65th annual Grammy Awards . This is the second week in a row that The Last of Us has had some big competition, after airing on HBO during the last half of the AFC Championship on the East Coast last week.

The series has now grown its same-day audience every week since it debuted in January. Sunday night's viewership was up 60% from the premiere episode's same-day number.

With the Super Bowl approaching this Sunday, The Last of Us fans are in luck, as the next episode drops on HBO Max in just a few days . The episode will debut on the streaming service on Friday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT ahead of its HBO airing at in its usual Sunday spot (which conflicts directly with the Big Game).

The series, which is based on the PlayStation game, takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal journey as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

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It stars Pedro Pascal , Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman as well as Melanie Lynskey, Storm Reid, Merle Dandridge, Jeffrey Pierce, Lamar Johnson, Keivonn Woodard, Graham Greene, Elaine Miles, Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker.

The Last of Us is written and executive produced by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. It is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television along with PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint and Naughty Dog. Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, and Rose Lam also exec produce.