Westworld debuted its second season on Sunday night, with the Nielsen ratings placing the episode on par with what the show drew with its series debut.
The 70-minute premiere drew 2.1 million viewers on HBO at 9 p.m. That is up approximately 5% from the Season 1 premiere. When factoring in an encore and those who watched on HBO Go and HBO Now, the total rises to 3 million. The series premiere drew 3.3 million viewers when encores and streaming were factored in initially, meaning the Season 2 premiere was down approximately 10%.
While not staggering numbers, it is important to remember that Westworld Season 1 averaged an estimated 13.2 million viewers per episode across platforms once all views were tallied, putting it on par with HBO’s number one series, Game of Thrones.
Much of the cast from Season 1 returned for Season 2, including Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris, Jimmi Simpson, Jeffrey Wright, James Marsden, and Tessa Thompson. New cast members this season Gustaf Skarsgård, Jonathan Tucker, Fares Fares, Katja Herbers, Peter Mullan, Rinko Kikuchi, and Kiki Sukezane. The first season was also nominated for 22 Emmys, ultimately winning five.
