Winter is popular.

Sunday’s Season 7 premiere of “Game of Thrones,” which kicked off the show’s final stretch, brought record ratings for the series and HBO.

As of Monday the episode had been watched by 16.1 million people across all platforms, including traditional cable, streaming and on-demand viewing. This is a 50 percent increase from last year’s Season 6 kickoff episode, making it the most-watched premiere ever for both “Game of Thrones” and HBO.

Those numbers will climb this week, as more people stream the episode or watch on-demand. Season 6 of the fantasy epic ultimately averaged 25.7 million viewers per episode. “Game of Thrones” is HBO’s most-watched series ever.