The Fascination With Game of Thrones

By: A. Rabelo

​An example of the show’s captivity and why Game of Thrones is so famous

Firstly, if you do not watch Game of Thrones, start watching. Now, it took me a while to start watching Game of Thrones, as I didn’t really have the time and I was never really attracted to the show. One day, after hearing from several of my friends and family members talk about the series on several occasions, I decided to give it a try. I got home on a Friday, opened up my computer, and started watching the first episode of season 1. Less than one month later, I was feeling sad for already being at the end of the 7th season. Those were some very well-worth 2 days 21 hours and 13 minutes of sitting in front of a screen watching what was, in my opinion, the best TV show ever. Nowadays, I spend the entire week wondering about what will happen on Sunday’s new episode, trying to guess which characters will die next and waiting for 22:00 on Sunday to arrive. I guess what makes Game of Thrones so famous globally is the way in which the show has the ability to appeal to viewers in several different ways, the two main ones being, in my opinion, via a specific character or characters and via the amount of detail in the creation of the fictitious continent of Westeros, with everything from making up the continent’s history up to even a map.

The Game of Thrones fever in numbers

​Many shows loose viewers as their seasons go by, but not Game of Thrones! Just look at the U.S. viewership for each season, and as you can see, the audience grew exponentially with each passing season. Season one had an average of 9.3 million viewers, season two had 11.6 million, season three had 14.4 million, season four had 19.1 million, season five had 20.2 million, season six had 25.7 million and season seven had 32.8 million. Throughout the first seven seasons, the series received a total of 132 Emmy nominations and 47 wins, seven Golden Globe nominations and one win, 18 SAG Award nominations and seven wins, 17 Critics' Choice Award nominations and one win and seven AFI award wins, quite impressive. Over the course of its eight seasons, the series has filmed in 10 countries, including Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Morocco, Malta, Spain, Croatia, Iceland, United States, Canada and Scotland. Now, to start off with the season eight numbers, HBO confirmed that 17.4 million people watched the season’s first episode on their subscription TV service and on their HBO GO and HBO NOW streaming apps within 24 hours of it airing, making the episode the most in-demand TV premier. Additionally, the third episode of season eight, which premiered on the 28th of April 2019, portrayed the largest battle in television history. It has been reported that season eight was the most expensive one with a $90 million budget (averaging $15 million each episode) and that top cast members were paid up to $500,000 per episode.