The Last of Us

The Last of Us shattered the video game adaptation curse, earning a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score—the highest on this list. Pedro Pascal's Joel and Bella Ramsey's Ellie navigate a fungal-infested America with devastating grace, and the series became HBO's most-watched new show ever, averaging 32 million viewers per episode across platforms. Its emotional realism outpaces #7's typical genre fare, with the second episode's clicker sequence setting a new standard for horror on television. Grossing $1.3 billion in cultural impact, the show uses its $15 million per episode budget to craft a post-apocalyptic world that feels lived-in, not spectacle-driven. This adaptation redefines what TV can do with beloved source material.