The Last Of Us Ratings Crumble Following Pedro Pascal Exit and Controversial Storyline

   

Nielsen has released the ratings for the full week in which Episode 4 was released, and the viewership continues to plummet.

The Last Of Us Ratings Crumble Following Pedro Pascal Exit and Controversial  Storyline | Cosmic Book News

This lines up with official data released by HBO showing a more than 50% drop in viewership from Season 1.

nielsen ratings overall may 5 11 2025
Nielsen Overall Top 10 ratings for the week of May 5-11, 2025 (via THR)

What are the ratings?

Nielsen has released the streaming data for the week of May 5–11, following the May 4 release of Episode 4, “Day One.”

Viewership for The Last of Us dropped from 937 million minutes to 827 million with episodes two to three, and then further to 738 million with episode four, slipping to seventh place overall.

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What happened? Fans aren’t happy

Pedro Pascal exit

It’s obvious fans aren’t happy that the series followed the video game and killed off Pedro Pascal’s character, Joel. The video game also received backlash.

 
last of us dad

Regarding the story, the new character for the series, Dina, played by Isabela Merced, becomes pregnant. She shares a kiss with Bella Ramsey’s Ellie, who actually says she is going to be the dad.

Ramsey is also not without a lot of controversy due to her politics and has since become meme-famous online.

The series is also about Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby, and there are other LGBQT+ episodes and themes about the agenda as well.