‘Breaking Bad’ finale cooks up its highest ratings ever

Backed by near-unanimous critical praise, incessant social media conversation and intense coverage on every form of talk show, Breaking Bad soared to its highest ratings ever — and also created a record 500,00 illegal downloads — in its finale Sunday night on AMC.

The finale also scored a powerhouse number in the audience that advertisers pay most to reach — in this case a reported cable record of $400,000 (€295,000) for each commercial — with 6.7m viewers in the audience between 18 and 49 years old.

The only other drama to attract more viewers for its US finale was The Sopranos on HBO, which totalled 11.9m. But The Sopranos always had big ratings numbers. Breaking Bad was truly a late finisher, growing every year, especially over its last 16 episodes, driven largely by so-called binge viewing as fans caught up with the series through streaming on Netflix or by playing DVDs.