The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that postapocalyptic drama The Last of Us debuted its second season Sunday on HBO, with ratings up 13 per cent from its first season premiere. The unbylined item says that the show starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey reached 5.3 million U.S. viewers in this go-round, reports Variety, compared with 4.7 million viewers in January, 2023. The numbers include Nielsen's viewership calculations for HBO's cable channel as well as Max streaming data from Warner Bros. Discovery. On Crave, where The Last of Us streams in Canada, ratings for the Season 2 premiere were 23 per cent higher than the Season 1 premiere, according to a Bell Media release. It was the third-highest season premiere streaming numbers in Crave's history, after the premieres of House of the Dragon's second season and Game Of Thrones' eighth season. The Last of Us is based on the like-named video-game franchise from developer Naughty Dog.