Succession Ratings Break Series Record on HBO With Shocking Death

Not only did the latest episode of Succession change the framework of the entire story for the Roy family, it also marked a series high for HBO. Even though the episode’s big twist wasn’t advertised ahead of time, the newest installment of Succession‘s fourth and final season marked the most-watched first-night debut of any episode in the entire series to this point. 

According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the third episode of Succession Season 4 hit 2.5 million viewers over the course of Sunday night. That number combines the streaming data from Nielsen and the company’s own HBO Max streaming numbers. Considering that data counts viewership from the entirety of Sunday night, the excitement surrounding the surprising death of Logan Roy likely got people to check it out as soon as the episode had aired. 

Previously, the most-watched episode of Succession was the recent Season 4 premiere, which saw 2.3 million people watch on its debut night. According to WBD’s data, that episode has been watched by nearly 7 million viewers over the last three weeks. Given that Sunday night’s episode had a 7% increase in viewership over the premiere, it’ll be interesting to see how many times it’s viewed over the next few weeks.

The new episode saw the life of Logan Roy come to an end, sending the entire family (and company) into a bit of a tailspin. Star Brian Cox opened up to about finding out about his character’s untimely fate.

“Well, he was very good about that, Jesse [Armstrong], because he told me right before the season started, this was going to happen. And I knew that I was going to be going,” Cox explained. “I’m very proud of myself, that I managed to keep this secret. You know, I thought, wow, Brian, for the first time ever, you’ve actually kept a secret. It’s such a big secret.”

Cox went on to say that he is interested to see how it all shakes out because he doesn’t actually know the ending of the show. Exiting so early in the final season, he’s just as in the dark about Succession‘s end as the rest of us.

“I mean, I’m eager to see how it shapes up, eager to see how…because it’s a slightly different show when you don’t have Logan,” he said. “It’ll be interesting to see how Logan’s shadow looms, but I really don’t know, because I’m out of it.”