Judging by the amount of people that watched live, it looks like not too many people were spoiled by the events of the Game of Thrones Season 5 finale on Monday. The episode drew 8.1 million viewers—a new series high—according to TVBytheNumbers, which ever-so-slightly breaks the show’s previous record set by the Season 5 premiere, which attracted 8 million viewers. In terms of actual ratings, however, the finale was down a tenth from the season premiere, netting a 4.1 rating in the 18-49 demo.

The total viewers number is a stark improvement from the early days of Season 1, which hit a high of 3.04 million viewers for its season finale. The show has grown leaps and bounds since that time to become HBO's most popular series ever, amassing its greatest single-season jump in viewership during Season 3.

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Image via HBO

But Season 5 actually saw some fluctuations in numbers during its run, dropping from its 8 million viewers season opener to just 6.81 million viewers in Episode 2. Things hit a season low with Episode 7’s “The Gift”, which scored 5.4 million viewers—the lowest since Season 3.

Of course these numbers don’t reflect the total number of people watching the show, as many still opt to pirate the series even though HBO launched an online-only service this year. Regardless, the very bloody “Mother’s Mercy” ended things on a high note (numbers-wise; creatively is a different story), and as things start to progress entirely outside of the books in Season 6, it’ll be interesting to see if viewership holds, rises, or declines.

For all of our Game of Thrones season finale coverage, peruse the links below:

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Image via HBO