‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7 Reportedly Pirated Over One Billion Times
We’re never surprised to see Game of Thrones topping the annual list of most-pirated series, but Season 7 might be a dragon of a different color. A new report suggests leaked episodes only helped the show’s piracy tally, ranking in with over a billion downloads.
TorrentFreak points to new data from piracy monitoring firm MUSO suggesting that each of the seven episodes were pirated an average of 140 million times, compared with 32 million views through authorized channels. Torrents and direct downloads accounted for only 15% total, with the rest made up from unauthorized streaming services and private torrents.
Such a high number is likely bolstered by the various Season 7 leaks, which saw “The Spoils of War” and “Beyond The Wall” inadvertently released ahead of schedule (though not by HBO hackers who threatened as much). “Beyond The Wall” in particular was downloaded more than the finale, though MUSO’s data apparently doesn’t include Chinese traffic or alternate sources like Kodi boxes.
The seventh season nonetheless enjoyed record viewership, and will surely reclaim its spot on TorrentFreak’s yearly list, but those episodes will have to last a while. The eighth and final season might not premiere until at least 2019, and Gods know what kind of piracy numbers we’ll see then.