Yesterday’s premiere of the fifth season of Game of Thrones drew huge audiences, despite the series leaking online.

The episode screened live with over 170 countries at 11amAEST to 242,000 viewers followed by a prime-time replay at 7.30pm at 311,000.

That was well up on premiere numbers last season (2014: 158,000 / 115,000).

A combined cumulative average audience totalled 553,000 viewers – a huge 76 per cent increase on last season. After becoming the highest single show on one day, Foxtel has claimed it as “the most watched series in Australian Subscription Television history.”

The numbers are good news amid recurring claims that so many Aussies resort to illegal sourcing of content.

TorrentFreak reports the UK was #1 for illegally downloading the premiere episode, up 9.8% on 2014, followed by the US, India and Canada. Australia was in #8 spot, up 3.1% hopefully putting to rest suggestions we are the biggest downloaders of the show.

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