Unless you've been living under Casterly Rock, it has been hard to miss the fact that season three of the fantasy series Game of Thrones launched in the U.S. and Australia yesterday, with Foxtel subscribers who are signed up to the premium ShowCase channel able to watch the show, legally, only two hours after their North American cousins.

And they did. In droves. Delivering Showcase’s biggest audience ever as well as their biggest share of the total subscription television audience ever.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannnister in Game of Thrones

Foxtel's "express from the U.S." campaign has delivered a huge, tangible gain, with the combined audience yesterday doubling the ratings for last season's premiere.

The season three premiere had an average combined audience of 224,000 people over its four airings on Foxtel on Monday, with 104,000 people watching at 4.20pm (including the re-run two hours later on the ShowCase +2 channel) and 120,000 at 8.35pm, including the +2 viewers.