The first episode of the final season of the hit drama series 'Game of Thrones' premiered last Sunday after an almost 2-year hiatus break from season 7 finale. The series, which has attracted quite an audience in its eight years of running had TV show lovers anticipate with great expectation for the final season premiere. Not only coming in to whet the appetite of show lovers, but also raised the stakes with a whooping 17.4 million total number of viewership from across the world to watch the show in one night, besting the previous record by half a million (16.9 million). Twitter was also fired up with much fire than that of a dragon recording a total of 5 million tweets in one night just for the iron throne pre and post telecast. Its streaming platform HBO, also saw an approximate 50% jump in viewership compared to last season's finale and a 97% increase when compared to the seventh season premiere. The debut of the eighth season also accounts for the largest night of streaming activity ever for HBO. The success of the season's first episode doubled the records of HBO's other streaming shows with new added numbers. 'Barry' boosted up to 2.2 million viewers, 'Veep' up to 1.5 million and 'Last Week Tonight' up with 1.7 million viewers. In their growing years, the show has recorded below an average record of views for each premiered season including delayed viewing, on-demand and streaming figures: Season 1: 1.3 million Season 2: 11.6 million Season 3: 14.4 million Season 4: 19.1 million Season 5: 20.2 million Season 6: 25.7 million Season 7: 32.8 million By: Larry Adams