In the United States, American football is a “religion”, but beyond that, the country of Hollywood, Orson Welles and HBO sometimes turns away from sporting evidence. This Sunday, the series The Last of Us achieved the feat of dethroning the king sport of the USA on Twitter.
Available in France on Prime Videothe first episode of The Last of Us provokes many emulators. For good reason, the series is particularly awaited and HBO, its producer and broadcaster, has decided to make it its flagship work for the start of 2023. Obviously, the bet has won on the United States side, the series remained for a while in first place in the US Trending Topics, the most trending terms and hashtags on Twitter. If this does not seem impressive from our European point of view, it is above all the relationship to the competition that is shocking.
Clearly, the first episode narrating the adventures of Ellie and Joël was broadcast at the same time as the final stages of the American football championship: the NFL. These final games of the season are the most watched programs each year on American television for more than 10 years. Nevertheless, the enthusiasm around The Last of Us must remain measured. For the moment, it is only about the reactions provoked on Twitter. As of this writing, it’s unclear if HBO’s new show has surpassed the game that was taking place at the same time in Ohio, in terms of viewers in front of their screens.
An impressive performance in the USA
It’s a feat that we hardly realize on the other side of the Atlantic: The Last of Us generated more reactions on Twitter than the NFL match broadcast in parallel. So to guide you, we give you a little plan of this nice performance. In the United States, the evening of Sunday January 15, ie during the night in Europe, was marked by two events. On the one hand, Baltimore Ravens challenge Cincinnati Bengals in NFL Wild Cards Playoff, the main professional league of American football. It was a particularly important match since it takes place during the final stages, whoever wins it will be able to go to the conference semi-finals and will be two games away from the legendary Super Bowl, the annual final of the favorite sport of the ‘America.
At the same time, the private channel HBO, for Home Box Office, broadcast the first episode of its flagship series: The Last of Us. The latter is inspired by Naughty Dog’s hit game. Released in 2013, the narrative adventure game was a real slap in the face for the video game industry. Rapidly, it revolutionized the genre of narrative games and established itself as a benchmark to follow. A formula that some studios have hastened to adopt, sometimes with excess. Despite this, the game was widely acclaimed by critics and gamers alike, with the first game selling over 20 million copies. The series, it has had a reception just as studded with congratulations. For example, the end of the press review embargo on RottenTomatoes saw the maximum rating of 100% given to early episodes.
