Game of Thrones ratings Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannnister in Game of Thrones Unless you've been living under Casterly Rock, it has been hard to miss the fact that season three of the fantasy series Game of Thrones launched in the U.S. and Australia yesterday, with Foxtel subscribers who are signed up to the premium ShowCase channel able to watch the show, legally, only two hours after their North American cousins. And they did. In droves. Delivering Showcase's biggest audience ever as well as their biggest share of the total subscription television audience ever. Foxtel's "express from the U.S." campaign has delivered a huge, tangible gain, with the combined audience yesterday doubling the ratings for last season's premiere. The season three premiere had an average combined audience of 224,000 people over its four airings on Foxtel on Monday, with 104,000 people watching at 4.20pm (including the re-run two hours later on the ShowCase +2 channel) and 120,000 at 8.35pm, including the +2 viewers. Sports shows aside, which traditionally dominate the subscriber television ratings, this result ranked the premiere first and second among all Foxtel shows. In addition, social media was awash with reports of viewing parties around Australia. The event experience of a first airing would appear to have been recaptured by the swift retransmission, which effectively eliminated the benefit of downloading the show. By comparison, last year's Game of Thrones season two debut, which ran on Foxtel four days after it was broadcast in the US delivered a total audience of 113,000. Brian Walsh, Foxtel Executive Director of Television described the results as "brilliant" and a victory for their fast track policy, saying he had "no doubt that Foxtel subscribers have embraced our express from the US strategy." The results in the US were also record-breaking, though not to quite the same magnitude of increase. The American debut was watched by a record 4.4 million viewers, 13 per cent more than the season two premiere audience of 3.9 million. It was a ratings high for the series as a whole, 4 per cent higher than the season two finale. In all, a total of 6.7 million viewers watched one of the three telecasts HBO screened. This is an impressive achievement for the premium cable network, which charges a subscription fee on top of the basic cable fee. Game of Thrones also faced stiff demographic competition from the season three finale of zombie-western drama The Walking Dead, which aired at the same time on AMC, a cable channel accessible to all US cable subscribers. The Walking Dead also set a series-high audience of 12.4 million viewers, making it the highest rated scripted program on any television for the week. To put this in perspective, Sunday's free-to-air broadcasts of Revenge and The Voice in the US were watched by audiences of 5.42 million and 5.28 million respectively. The Walking Dead season three finale airs on Foxtel's FX channel on Tuesday at 8.30pm. Australian Subscription TV Top Twenty for Monday, 1 April 1 Live: AFL Hawthorn V Geelong Fox Footy 301,000 2 Live: NRL Roosters V Eels Fox Sports 1 292,000 3 Live: NRL Warriors V Cowboys Fox Sports 1 264,000 4 Live: Monday Night With Matty Johns Fox Sports 1 142,000 5 Live: AFL: On The Couch Fox Footy 129,000 6 Live: League Central Monday Fox Sports 1 120,000 7 Live: AFL: Easter Monday Footy On Fox Fox Footy 118,000 8 Live: AFL: Easter Monday Footy On Fox Fox Footy 115,000 9 Game Of Thrones Showcase 109,000 10 AFL: Open Mike Fox Footy 103,000 11 Live: League Central Monday Fox Sports 1 101,000 12 Live: AFL 360 Fox Footy 97,000 13 Game Of Thrones Showcase 95,000 14 AFL: After The Bounce Fox Footy 76,000 15 The Avengers Foxtel Movies Premiere 68,000 16 AFL 360 Fox Footy 64,000 17 Dance Moms Lifestyle You 61,000 18 The Simpsons Fox8 58,000 19 Live: Rugby League: Holden Cup Fox Sports 1 54,000 20 Double Your House For Half The Money Lifestyle Channel 54,000 SOURCE: OzTam Check out our The Walking Dead season three finale review on Wednesday