Game of Thrones' Ratings Continue to Rise

With the sixth season of Game of Thrones about to conclude, HBO has revealed the show's ratings are on the rise.

Its HBO's first fantasy series to see ratings increases over the course of six years, the network told USA Today. This season has seen an average of 23.3 million viewers when combining the various ways to watch, which is a 15 percent increase over Season 5.

This rise is thanks in part to streaming through HBO Go and HBO Now, the latter of which was still a new service limited to PCs and Apple devices last season. The two combine for about 2.5 million streams of the show, a 70 percent increase over last year. Meanwhile, live premiere ratings are up 6 percent to 7.3 million, and combined TV/on-demand viewing is up 4 percent.

Meanwhile, two of HBO's other Sunday shows, Silicon Valley and Veep, are up in overall viewership, though Silicon Valley's TV ratings (which doesn't include gains through streaming) are down slightly.

Still, HBO boss Richard Plepler says this is all evidence that HBO Now "doesn't cannibalize anything on the (TV) network," which is a concern that was raised prior to its launch in April 2015. "It simply expands the audience's opportunity to watch our programs. It's all about expanding the pie."

Game of Thrones is, unsurprisingly, confirmed to continue beyond this season, though there may only be 10-15 hours left. There has long been talk of a potential spinoff, and HBO has indicated previously it would be up for whatever showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss think of, if anything.

Season 6 concludes this coming Sunday, June 26. We recently got a sneak peek at some of what's set to unfold during this longer-than-usual episode.