11.9m viewers tuned in for the series finale of The Sopranos Sunday night, according to data from Nielsen Media Research.

The figure is of near-historic proportions for HBO, a premium network to which around 30m households subscribe, relative to its more widely-available broadcast competitors. Over the entirety of last week only the season debut of America's Got Talent beat The Sopranos - by 1.1m viewers. An NBA Finals game and the Tony Awards, both of which aired on terrestrial networks and for which big numbers were anticipated, drew fewer total viewers - 8.6m and 6.2m respectively.

For a spoiler-laced look at how the show came to its end in the US, click here.