Game Of Thrones Breaks Its Own Internet Piracy Record

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Although Game of Thrones is notorious for the many immoral bands of looters and criminals that people it, another kind of piracy has shaken the fantasy series.

According to Torrent Freak, the fifth season finale of the immensely popular HBO programme set a new record for illegal downloads, with 1.5 million downloads in the eight hours following its US premiere.

“Never before have we seen this many downloads in such a short period of time, and last year it took half a day to reach the same number,” wrote Torrent Freak, a publication about filesharing and copyright. “Based on this figure, the download count is expected to increase to more than 10 million during the days to come.”

The series five finale, the most-viewed Game of Thrones episode so far through both official and illicit channels, is also likely to break the record for most simultaneous downloads for users sharing a single file. The show will be breaking its own record, as it is currently held by last year’s season four finale, at 250,000.

Game of Thrones has long faced issues with piracy, a record that they were once proud of, but now the network is starting to crack down following an incident earlier this year in which the first four episodes of season five were leaked early. This includes the broadband-only package HBO Now and a global simulcast, across 170 countries.

Over the past three years Game of Thrones has been the most pirated TV show, and based on the number of downloads this season, the same result will be achieved in 2015.

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