Game of Thrones finale breaks another piracy record

Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones (Screenshot/YouTube.com)

The finale for the fifth season of “Game of Thrones” was illegally downloaded more than 1.5 million times in the 12 hours following the show's debut on HBO Sunday night, according to data gathered by TorrentFreak. The figure sets a piracy record for a “Game of Thrones” finale, which earned the “most pirated TV show” designation years ago yet only continues to become more popular.

(Readers anxious about finale spoilers can read this article without learning about the show's latest plot twists.)

Social media is regularly filled with “Game of Thrones” chatter on Monday mornings, with many HBO-deprived fans flocking to torrent sites like the Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrentsto avoid missing out on the conversation. It shouldn't be a surprise that the end of the most popular season yet will also go down as the most downloaded episode. The fourth season finale, for instance, has half as many downloads during the 12 hours after its initial broadcast.

The number of downloads is expected to exceed 10 million before 24 hours has passed, TorrentFreak reported. Yet the total so far still failed to exceed 2.2 million downloads in 12 hours, the figure set by the fifth season premiere when the first four episodes of the new season leaked in April.

A cursory search through Kickass Torrents reveals that all the usual distribution groups – ETTV, RARBG, and others – are helping spread illicit, albeit incredibly high quality, copies of the show. Unlike the hostile, anti-corporate attitude that's so often on display on piracy sites, many commenters expressed appreciation for the opportunity to watch the show for free. More than 220,000 computers were sharing a single torrent file of the finale on Monday morning.

“Thanks for keeping it regular, ETTV team,” wrote one Kickass commenter. “And thanks to all the great release teams, a man can count on them to keep the shows rolling in. Thank you George R. R. Martin, for pulling so many of us in. Last but not least, thank you, HBO, for bringing his stories to life.”

International Business Times