The Walking Dead has an insatiable appetite for viewers.
The AMC drama, which follows a brave band of humans facing swarms of flesh-eating zombies, attracted 16.1 million viewers Sunday for its Season 4 opener, a series record. The show also drew 10.4 million young adults (18 to 49), making it the top show in all of TV so far in the new season, including prime-time NFL football, in that advertiser-coveted demographic.
The totals easily surpass the show's previous records, 12.4 million viewers and 8.1 million young adults for the Season 3 finale.
"Sincere thanks to the fans, who have welcomedThe Walking Dead back for its fourth season with the highest-rated episode in the show's history," AMC President Charlie Collier says in a statement accompanying the ratings announcement. "We could not be more proud of this show and everyone on both sides of the camera who work so hard to give life to this story of character, leadership and survival."
The third-season premiere of Talking Dead, the discussion show that follows Walking Dead, recorded its best premiere performance with 5.1 million viewers, including 3.3 million young adults.
Walking Dead also made its mark in social-media activity. Viewers posted nearly 40,000 tweets about the show in the first minute of the East Coast broadcast, accounting for 88% of TV-related tweets. Overall, the premiere attracted 1.17 million tweets from 570,148 unique authors.