The Gilded Age ended its freshman run on a high note, with its finale earning 1.6 million viewers across HBO platforms.

The HBO freshman wrapped its first season Monday with Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) at the top of her game with every high society woman attending her grand ball, even if most would’ve rather have been elsewhere. Marian (Louisa Jacobson) and Peggy (Denée Benton) faced many challenges across nine episodes, and while there’s still much to unravel, things are looking hopeful at last. (Read Deadline’s full recap and Q&A with bosses Julian Fellowes & Sonja Warfield here.)

The season ender marked a series high for The Gilded Age and brought in a 54% audience increase from the premiere back in January. At the time of the finale, The Gilded Age grew from its initial 1 million total viewers to 8.5 million across HBO and HBO Max.

Heading into the finale, The Gilded Age was the top series on HBO Max. The streamer also shared that The Gilded Age was the No. 1 most social drama series across TV on Monday, the No. 2 most social series finale on premium cable year-to-date and the No. 3 most social drama series finale across all of TV year-to-date.

HBO’s The Official Gilded Age Podcast, hosted by TCM’s Alicia Malone and Tom Meyers from The Bowery Boys, reached No. 1 on the Apple After Show podcast chart and No. 2 in TV & Film.

The Gilded Age has been renewed for Season 2. The series was created and written by Julian Fellowes, who executive produces with Gareth Neame, David Crockett and Bob Greenblatt. Additional executive producers are directors Michael Engler, Salli Richardson-Whitfield. Writer Sonja Warfield serves as co-executive producer with Erica Dunbar. The Gilded Age is a co-production between HBO and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

Rosy Cordero contributed to this report.