You're probably here because you just finished a grueling, heart-wrenching hour of television and you're staring at the "Up Next" screen wondering how much more emotional trauma your heart can take. Or maybe you're just trying to plan a weekend binge and need to know if you can actually squeeze the whole thing in before Monday morning.
Either way, the question of how many episodes of The Last of Us exist is actually a moving target.
Right now, if you log into Max, you're looking at exactly nine episodes for the first season. That’s it. Just nine. It feels like more because of how heavy each chapter is, but showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann kept the debut season lean. They didn't want filler. They didn't want "monster of the week" episodes that didn't move the needle on Joel and Ellie’s relationship.
The Breakdown of Season 1
The first season covers the entirety of the first game, including the Left Behind DLC. If you've played the Naughty Dog masterpiece, you know the pacing. The show mirrors it pretty closely.
It starts with a massive, feature-length premiere that runs about 81 minutes. It’s basically a movie. After that, the episodes fluctuate. Some are a tight 45 minutes; others, like the legendary "Long, Long Time" (the Bill and Frank episode), stretch closer to an hour.
Here is the thing about those nine episodes: they aren't distributed evenly across the story. The show spends a lot of time in the beginning building the world of the Boston QZ and then takes a massive, beautiful detour in episode three. By the time you hit the winter chapter in episode eight—the one with David—the pacing is a freight train.
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Honestly, some fans felt the ending was a bit rushed. The final episode is actually the shortest of the bunch, clocking in at around 43 minutes. It’s a choice that still sparks debates on Reddit and at bars. Did they need a tenth episode to let the Firefly hospital sequence breathe? Maybe. But Mazin has been vocal about the fact that they only want to tell the story that’s on the page. No fluff.
Looking Ahead: How Many Episodes are in Season 2?
This is where things get interesting for 2025 and 2026.
We know Season 2 is currently in the works. We also know it is not covering the whole second game. The Last of Us Part II is a massive, sprawling, dual-perspective epic that is significantly longer than the first game. Trying to cram that into nine episodes would be a disaster.
The official word from the production is that Season 2 will consist of seven episodes.
Yes, it’s shorter than the first season. But don't freak out. Mazin explained to Deadline that one of the episodes in the second season is "fairly massive" in terms of length. He basically said that the natural breaking point for the story they wanted to tell this year came at episode seven.
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This confirms that we are definitely getting a Season 3, and likely a Season 4. They are breaking the second game into multiple seasons to give characters like Abby, Dina, and Jesse the room they need to exist. So, while the current count is nine, the total count for the series will likely land somewhere between 24 and 28 when all is said and done.
Why the Episode Count Matters for the Story
Television is usually built on a 10 or 13-episode structure. HBO likes those numbers. But The Last of Us is part of a new wave of "prestige" TV where the story dictates the length, not the network schedule.
Think about Episode 3.
It’s a standalone masterpiece.
If they had a strict 13-episode order, they might have been tempted to do more of those. We could have had a whole episode about Ish in the sewers or a backstory for the sniper in Pittsburgh (or Kansas City, in the show's case). While gamers might love that, it risks diluting the central tension of Joel and Ellie's journey.
The current count of nine episodes for the first season allows the "Winter" and "Spring" chapters to hit like a ton of bricks. If you’re watching for the first time, pay attention to the shift in episode five. That’s the turning point. The scale gets bigger, the stakes get higher, and the episode count starts to feel like a countdown.
Beyond the Main Episodes: What Else is There?
If you've finished the nine episodes and you're desperate for more, you aren't totally out of luck. HBO released a "Making of" special that functions almost like a tenth episode. It’s about 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage showing how they built the Clickers and how Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey bonded on set.
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Then there are the games.
Seriously.
If you want the full experience, the "episodes" of the game provide a different kind of depth. You get hours of extra dialogue between Joel and Ellie that didn't make it into the show simply because of time constraints.
Quick Recap of Total Counts
- Season 1: 9 Episodes (Aired 2023)
- Season 2: 7 Episodes (Expected 2025)
- Season 3: Confirmed, but episode count TBA
- Total currently watchable: 9
Practical Next Steps for Viewers
If you're planning to start the show now, give yourself a weekend. You can realistically clear Season 1 in two sittings.
Watch Day 1: Episodes 1 through 3. This gets you through the heavy world-building and the emotional peak of Bill and Frank.
Watch Day 2: Episodes 4 through 9. Once you hit the Kansas City arc, you won't want to stop.
Keep an eye on official HBO announcements for the Season 2 premiere date. Given the production timelines and the scale of the set pieces in the second game—specifically the "Seattle Day 1" sequences—expect those seven episodes to feel much longer and more intense than anything we saw in the first year.
If you're a completionist, download the The Last of Us Part I on PS5 or PC. It’s the best way to see the scenes that were "cut" from the show’s episode count, including the extended university exploration and the more complex trap-filled outskirts of Lincoln.