'Game of Thrones' ratings hit ANOTHER series high

Will True Blood get dethroned?

Following the previous week’s dragon-unleashing stunner, HBO’s Game of Thrones climbed in the ratings Sunday night for the fifth episode of the season.

Thrones delivered 5.3 million viewers for its first airing at 9 p.m. That’s up 8 percent from the previous week, which was also a record high, and had built on a previous record high this season. The show was watched by 6.7 million across two plays. So far, Thrones is averaging 13.4 million viewers for season 3 once all airings and DVR playback is accounted for — almost 2 million more than the season 2 average.

There’s some significance to hitting last night’s number. Last year’s True Blood premiered to 5.2 million viewers. Could Game of Thrones overthrow True Blood to become the network’s most-watched series this year? (Yes, they’re on the same network, so it’s all gravy for HBO, but it’s still fun to pit these two shows with heavy online fandoms against each other and see which comes out on top).

Here’s EW’s recap of the Thrones episode and be sure to check out our interview with the cast about the episode’s “hot tub” scenes.