‘Game of Thrones’ Episode 5 Ratings: How Many Watched Daenerys Attack King’s Landing?

Did Game of Thrones fans stick around to see what came of Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) attack on Cersei (Lena Headey), or did they, too, flee like the innocent residents of King’s Landing?

With “The Bells” being the penultimate episode of the series, we expected to see big numbers in terms of viewers, even with the episode extending past the hour time slot. (Fans should be used to that, given that most of the final season’s episodes have been longer than the normal 60 minutes.)

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Season 8, Episode 5 has received the lowest score of the season on Rotten Tomatoes‘ Tomatometer, 54%. That number measures the percentage of approved Tomatometer critics who have given the episode a positive review. It’s only slightly lower than Episode 4’s 57%. It also received an average rating of 6 out of 10, also the lowest of the season.

Still, it set another record for ratings, with 12.5 million tuning in for its first airing. Previously, the top three episodes on that list were the Season 7 finale, Season 8, Episode 3 and Season 8, Episode 4. Adding in viewers across HBO GO and HBO NOW, a record 18.4 million watched, beating the previous high of 17.8 million for Episode 3’s Battle of Winterfell. Game of Thrones Season 8 is averaging 43 million viewers per episode in gross audience.

(Helen Sloan/HBO)

Critics and fans alike were not pleased with Daenerys’ descent into madness or some of the events that occurred at King’s Landing.

The episode was a hot subject on social media Sunday night, taking nine spots of the Top 10 worldwide Twitter trending topics and 15 of the Top 20, according to Headline Planet. The trending topics include the show’s title, Dany (and Daenerys), Cersei, Arya, Jaime (and his name misspelled), Tyrion, Varys, Drogon, Euron and Mad Queen.

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American Idol only slipped a bit but still topped Sunday night. Family Guy, Charmed, Shark Tank and NCIS: Los Angeles all rose a bit in viewers, while Good Girls slipped slightly. (That could change when final numbers come in.)

Game of Thrones, Series Finale, Sunday, 9/8c, HBO