Game of Thrones Reaches Nearly 20 Million Viewers Per Episode

There's no question that HBO's Game of Thrones is one of the most popular shows on television, but now we have an actual number to quantify just how popular it has become.

Time Warner issued its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday and revealed the show has reached a record of 19 million viewers per episode. This factors in all platforms and includes first-run airings, repeats, DVR playback and streaming. This also represents a significant boost on next-day numbers, which hover around seven million.

In other news, Maisie Williams recently spoke to TVLine and the site of course asked what's in store for Arya Stark next season. "I haven't gotten the scripts yet, so I still don't know what's happening. I have a rough outline of what happens in the books, but you never know what they're going to put into this season versus next season, or what they're going to scrap altogether," Williams said.

"I know a couple of really cool things happen in the books with Arya, and I just had a meeting about about a certain thing that happens to Arya, but I still don't know how it happens. And that's what it was like last year; I was learning fight scenes, even though I didn't know who I'd be fighting or why I'd be fighting them. People think the cast members know all the ins and outs, but we really don't."

Arya will be without The Hound for the first time in a while as Season 5 begins, and Williams is looking forward to it for her character's sake.

"I think she's going to be fine. And I think, for the first time ever, she actually believes she's going to be fine. It's refreshing to me; this girl's been pulled left and right by people who've been telling her what she's going to do with her life, and she's sick of it. She knows this world, she knows who to trust and she's ready to go off on her own."

Do the viewership numbers for Game of Thrones surprise you? Let us know in the comments below.