Game of Thrones’ Snapchat Selfie Lens Reached 45 Million People

To promote “Game of Thrones” season 7 — as if it needed any more hype — HBO bought a sponsored selfie lens on Snapchat that let fans turn themselves into a dead-eyed, ice-breathing White Walker.

Millions of the show’s fans, along with cast members Kit Harrington, Sophie Turner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, took part in the undead action on the app, producing a record number of impressions on Snapchat for a TV show-sponsored lens.

Over the course of about a week, the “Game of Thrones” lens got over 122 million total impressions, with more than 45 million individual users posting or viewing the sponsored selfies. The overall record-holder for sponsored Snapchat lenses remains Taco Bell’s campaign for Cinco de Mayo 2016 that let users turn themselves into a Crunchy Taco Supreme, which generated 224 million views.

According to Snap, the average user played with the “Game of Thrones” lens for 23 seconds (beating the 15-second average for a sponsored lens). Meanwhile, those who unlocked the lens via Snapcode played with it for an average of 127 seconds — a record for engagement on Snapchat sponsored lenses.

The “Game of Thrones” lens ran on Snapchat in 16 countries on Sunday, July 16, the day of the season 7 premiere. For one week prior, the selfie lenses could be unlocked by fans via a Snapcode that HBO promoted on social accounts, including in posts featuring cast members mugging for the White Walker lens.

It’s not clear how much the Snapchat promo really helped HBO bring in new viewers or subscribers, given that mania for “Game of Thrones” has been at an all-time high. The season 7 premiere was the most-watched season premiere for any HBO original series to date, and captured the highest number of concurrent viewers across streaming services HBO Go and HBO Now.

In any case, Snap has been steadily landing deals with media and entertainment companies eager to reach Snapchat’s younger-skewing user base. The messaging and media app reaches 41% of all adults 18-34 in the U.S., according to Nielsen research commissioned by Snap.

In the first quarter of 2017, Snap said Snapchat had an average of 166 million daily active users, as the company fell short of revenue expectations. On a daily basis, Snapchatters watch over 10 billion videos, according to the company.