HBO's new show based on PlayStation's fungal zombie game "The Last of Us" (PC version coming soon) is off to a strong start; according to HBO, the Sunday night premiere drew 4.7 million viewers both on TV and streaming on HBO Max.

This makes "The Last of Us" HBO's second most-watched series debut since the first episode of "Boardwalk Empire" in 2010 (4.81 million viewers), but the difference between second and first is significant: the prequel to "Game of Thrones The first episode of "House of the Dragon" was watched by about 10 million people on its first night last year. It may be unfair to compare even a hugely popular video game series like "The Last of Us" to anything in "Game of Thrones": George RR Martin's book alone outsold "The Last of Us" and its sequel by tens of millions of copies, and the finale broke HBO's record with 19.3 million viewers when it aired.

What I found odd was that a show based on a hit game series failed to surpass Boardwalk Empire, a period piece I don't remember discussing around the coffee machine in 2010, but HBO is hoping that Boardwalk's 2010 premiere will be the first time that viewers can freely watch episodes of reasonably points out that this was before the widespread availability of the HBO streaming app (the now depreciated HBO Go app was launched the same year), which allows viewers to watch episodes at their leisure. The network noted that "Sunday night ratings for HBO series typically account for 20% to 40% of total viewers per episode." (I also forgot to mention that "Boardwalk Empire" stars the incomparable Steve Buscemi, and I didn't know that the first episode was directed by Martin Scorsese.)

When it comes to The Last of Us, the PC Gamer team is divided. We criticized the game for being too much of a straightforward prestige TV adaptation of a prestige TV copycat game, with no new insights or interesting deviations that would differentiate it from the rest. But at today's morning staff meeting, there were some serious defenders of the mainstream premium cable apocalypse: the sets and acting are great, and "The Last of Us" is an interesting source material. It may not be particularly bold, but how much TV is?" at least more interesting than the "Halo" show.

Speaking of Paramount's "Halo" series, it set its own audience record last year on Paramount Plus. The network has not released specific numbers, but Master Chief's TV debut had around 5 million viewers, the same as Joel and Ellie's. Netflix will also when The Witcher (based on a book, not a game, but just a technical one) is released in 2019, stated that it was the most-watched debut season. We're also quite fond of Netflix's "Cyberpunk 2077" anime "Cyberpunk Edge Runners," whose success has boosted CD Projekt's RPG sales, and we've been goofy about Netflix's "Castlevania" show in the past.

One recent "Resident Evil" show was terrible, and another recent "Resident Evil" show was terrible, but aside from that, we seem to be at the dawn of a golden age for video game television adaptations.

Last I heard, shows for "Assassin's Creed," "Splinter Cell," "Far Cry," "Horizon Zero Dawn," "Tomb Raider," and "Gears of War" are in development on Netflix, most of them anime, and AMC has a show called " Alan Wake" shows in development, Amazon has "God of War," NBC has "Twisted Metal" shows in development for its streaming service Peacock, and, even stranger, for a new streaming service called "Binge," "Hunt:. Showdown", "Driver", and "System Shock" shows are in development for a new streaming service called "Binge".

While the reaction to "The Last of Us" that we have seen so far has not been as enthusiastic, the overall critical response to the show has been very positive, with the BBC and others calling it "the best video game adaptation to date."

New episodes of The Last of Us will air on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and stream on HBO Max. The season finale is scheduled for March 12; The Last of Us Part 1, a remake of the 2013 game, will be released on PC on March 3.