en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Lotus_season_3

This swaps the episode numbers. Contemporary ratings reports state that episode 2 reached 3.4 million viewers across HBO and Max, and that episode 4 also reached 3.4 million viewers. Reporting published after episode 6 further notes that Warner Bros. Discovery did not share data for episodes 3 or 5, which directly contradicts the claim that episode 3 had a released 3.4 million figure.

So the correct pairing is episodes 2 and 4, not episodes 3 and 4.

The published ratings report for this audience milestone identifies episode 6 ("Denials"), which aired on March 23, 2025, as the episode that reached 4.2 million viewers across HBO and Max. A follow-up report on episode 7 says that 4.8 million was an increase on last week's 4.2 million record, again placing the 4.2 million figure on episode 6.

That means the article assigns the 4.2 million number to the wrong episode.

This sentence misidentifies which episodes lacked published cross-platform totals. Episode 2's audience was publicly reported at 3.4 million viewers across HBO and Max. Reporting after episode 6 explicitly says Warner Bros. Discovery didn't share data regarding episodes 3 or 5.

So the unreleased episodes were 3 and 5, not 2 and 5.

This overstates Season 3's average audience. Coverage after the finale reported that Season 3 was averaging approximately 16 million viewers. Separate coverage of the premiere states that Season 2 averaged 15.5 million viewers with delayed playback.

Those figures mean Season 3 was only about 0.5 million viewers ahead of Season 2 at that point, not more than 5 million ahead. Some trade reports said Season 3 was pacing several million ahead of Season 2 over the same release window, but that is different from saying its average audience itself was 5+ million higher.