The finale of the second season of The Last of Us gathered half as many viewers as the finale of the first

On May 25, the final episode of the second season of The Last of Us was released on the HBO streaming platform, but the number of viewers it gathered was half that of the first season finale.

According to The Wrap, the final episode of the game adaptation's second season was watched by 3.7 million people. That's a 55% drop from the first season finale, which drew 8.2 million viewers. It's also lower than the second season premiere, which drew 5.3 million viewers.

HBO notes that the viewing figures for the second season finale of The Last of Us will increase significantly, as the available results were slightly lower due to the holiday weekend in the US. At the same time, even before the premiere of the second season, the company officially renewed the series for a third season.

The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II.

The second season came as a surprise to viewers who had not played the original games due to the death of Joel, played by Pedro Pascal. This led to the series' main character being replaced by Ellie, played by Bella Ramsay, which also caused some dissatisfaction with the choice of actress.

Series co-creator Craig Mazin revealed during a press conference ahead of the season two finale that there will be another side to the story that needs to be revealed in season three. In particular, the sequel will expand the role and presence of Abby, played by Caitlin Dever.

"There's another side to this story that we're still going to get into. And there's no question that Abby is the heroine of her own story. Where we go from here, all I can say is that there's always going to be one person in the spotlight, whether it's Ally and Dean or Abby," Mazin said. "But really, if you want to boil it down to it, everything is under the cloud or the sunlight of Joel - what Joel did to Abby and what Joel did for Ally - and that's never going to change."

Overall, the second season was not well received by everyone, and viewers left many negative reviews for the show on Rotten Tomatoes, where the series has a 39% fresh rating from viewers, but a whopping 94% from critics. On IMDb, where The Last of Us is currently the most popular series, the rating is 8.6, but this takes into account the ratings for the entire show, with individual episode ratings in the second season being worse.

At the same time, Mazin also said in an interview with Collider that it would be impossible to finish the story of The Last of Us in season three. He hopes that season three can convince HBO to continue the story.

"But certainly, there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome," Mazin said.