Sky's 'Westworld' traps huge 500k

The 10-part acquisition, based on Michael Crichton’s 1973 film of the same name, was comfortably ahead of The Night Of which landed on 1 September with 290,000 (0.2%) and Billions which got underway in May in front of 181,000 (0.9%).

The sixth series of Game of Thrones launched in April with 2.2m viewers.

Westworld’s feature-length opening episode peaked with 575,000 (3%) in its opening minutes and skewed slightly older than average, with 52% of the audience aged between 35 and 54, compared to the 39% average.

It demolished the channel’s slot average of 52,000 (0.3%) for the last 12 months.

The series takes place in the fictional theme park of Westworld, a technologically advanced, Western theme park populated completely by synthetic androids dubbed “Hosts”, who cater to high paying visitors dubbed “Newcomers”, who can do what they wish within the park without fear of retaliation from the Hosts.

Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Luke Hemsworth, James Marsden, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Thandie Newton star in the high-end drama created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO. Nolan serves as executive producer along with Joy, J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk.

Buzz has been building around the series for months following a concerted media advertising campaign.

Andreas Wiseman contributed to this report, which was first published on Screen’s sister publication Broadcast.