‘Succession’ Season 4 Premiere Breaks Ratings Record On HBO

Succession is off to an awesome start on HBO, breaking viewership records for the show with its Season 1 premiere. Things may be grim for the Roy family, but they’re looking brighter than ever for the show itself.

The Season 4 premiere brought in 2.3 million viewers Sunday, up 33% from the Season 3 finale, which drew 1.7 million viewers and held the previous record. The Season 4 premiere was up 62% compared to the Season 3 premiere.

The numbers are still well below HBO’s other big 2023 hit, The Last Of Us, which topped out at 8.2 million viewers for the Season 1 finale.

Season 4 picks up right after the dramatic conclusion to Season 3 when Logan Roy (Brian Cox) decided to sell Waystar RoyCo without consulting his children, all of whom were desperate to succeed him as boss. Now, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin) and Shiv Roy (Sarah Snook) are doing whatever it takes to get back at their father. After all, when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

I might be getting my HBO succession dramas mixed up here, but it seems to me that winter is coming for House Roy one way or another. Meanwhile, trouble is brewing with other members of the family including Shiv’s estranged husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen) and his best buddy, Greg (Nicholas Braun).

I reviewed the Season 4 premiere and while it’s definitely more of the same, the same in question happens to be quite excellent. You can read my review here. In it, I wrote:

“In many ways, this feels very much like a cyclical moment, a turning of the wheel back to the beginning. We have the birthday, we have the kids plotting against their father, we have Logan preparing to fight back. Tom and Shiv were just getting engaged back in Season 1, now their marriage is (apparently) coming to an end. Greg has risen up in the ranks of the Roy family and Waystar RoyCo but he’s learned nothing. Everything is different and nothing is.”

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong also serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside Adam McKay, Frank Rich, Kevin Messick, Jane Tranter, Mark Mylod, Tony Roche, Scott Ferguson, Jon Brown, Lucy Prebble, Will Tracy and Will Ferrell. Episode 2 airs on HBO and HBO Max this coming Sunday, April 2nd.