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  ===Viewer numbers===
  The first season averaged 2.5million viewers for its first Sunday-night screenings and a gross audience (including repeats and on-demand viewings) of 9.3million viewers per episode. For its second season, the series had an average gross audience of 11.6million viewers. The third season was seen by 14.2million viewers, making ''Game of Thrones'' the second-most-viewed HBO series (after ''The Sopranos''). For the fourth season, HBO said that its average gross audience of 18.4million viewers (later adjusted to 18.6million) had passed ''The Sopranos'' for the record.
  By the sixth season the average per-episode gross viewing figure had increased to over 25million, with nearly 40 percent of viewers watching on HBO digital platforms. In 2016, a ''New York Times'' study of the 50 TV shows with the most Facebook likes found that ''Game of Thrones'' was "much more popular in cities than in the countryside, probably the only show involving zombies that is". By season seven, average viewer numbers had increased to 32.8million per episode across all platforms.
  The series set records on pay-television channels in the United Kingdom (with a 2016 average audience of more than five million on all platforms) and Australia (with a cumulative average audience of 1.2million).