Euphoria continues to reach series highs with its ratings, even against the Super Bowl. Season 2, Episode 6, "A Thousand Little Trees of Blood," brought in 5.1 million viewers between HBO and HBO Max, a 20% increase from the week before and a 45% increase in the season overall. This show, according to Variety, is up nearly 100% in viewership from Season 1 to Season 2. This is an impressive boost with the Super Bowl still airing at the same time.
Created by Sam Levinson and starring Zendaya and Hunter Schaefer as Rue and Jules, Euphoria centers around Rue's struggle with sobriety. The series begins her story following an overdose which leads into her relationship with Jules and her struggle to maintain any sort of sobriety program with her drug use. But what works so well for the HBO drama is that the show is filled with characters around Rue who are all struggling in their own ways.
Euphoria is the kind of show that keeps you invested in Rue's sobriety as well as the well-being of her friend group. Each episode keeps fans coming back because we want to know how things pan out. The last two weeks, we were thrown for a loop when Cassie's (Sydney Sweeney) lie about Nate (Jacob Elordi) came to light, blowing up her relationship with Maddy (Alexa Demie) and sending shock waves through their friend group. The way that Levinson and company weave these stories together keeps audiences coming back for more.
With how Episode 5 left us, it isn't surprising that viewership went up even though the show was up against the big game between the Bengals and the Rams. According to HBO:
"Euphoria ranked as the No. 1 title on HBO Max in the U.S. for the fifth week in a row and the top series globally (including HBO Max viewership in LatAm and Europe.) Euphoria was the No. 1 most social and No. 1 most talked about broadcast when excluding the Super Bowl. Episode 1 is now tracking at 16.7 million viewers across platforms, just over 2.5x the average audience of Season 1 (6.6 million viewers per episode)."
There's a lot to still unpack in Euphoria in the remaining episodes of Season 2. What's going to happen with Rue's sobriety now that Ali is back in her life? Will she reconcile with Jules? How will Maddy react to Cassie and Nate's new living situation?
Euphoria airs on HBO and HBO Max on Sundays at 9 pm ET.