The ratings for Sunday night’s Season 2 finale of Game of Thrones slaughtered the HBO hit’s first-season closer, drawing a series-high 4.2 million total viewers with its 9 o’clock airing. That marks an improvement of 38 percent over the 3 million who tuned in for Season 1’s finale.

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Adding in the 910K who caught the encore at 11:10 pm, Thrones‘ Season 2 finale amassed 5.1 million viewers on Sunday night.

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Leading out of that hefty haul, HBO’s freshman comedy Veep enjoyed its second-most watched episode of the season (with 1.2 million total viewers), and Girls then hit a series high of 1.1 mil.

Other Sunday ratings notes, as they become available:

* The premiere of Longmire gave A&E its most-watched original series launch ever, with 4.1 million total viewers. Longmire also stands as cable’s top scripted drama debut of 2012 among total viewers and Adults 25-54.

* The Season 3 premiere of A&E’s The Glades posted double-digit gains versus its Season 2 averages in total viewers (up 19 percent with 3.1 million), Adults 18-49 (up 17 percent) and Adults 24-54 (up 27 percent).

* Part 1 of Teen Wolf‘s Season 2 premiere drew 2.1 million total viewers while scoring a 2.0 rating with MTV’s target 12-34 crowd (just shy of the drama’s year-ago debut), and was the series’ highest-rated outing to date among teens.