IANS

The seventh season of "Game of Thrones" has been illegally downloaded or streamed more than 1 billion times, according to a report. According to a report from anti-piracy firm MUSO, the seven episodes of "Game of Thrones" season seven each averaged 14.7 billion illegal views through September 3, reports variety.com.

Within the first 72 hours of its initial broadcast, the season premiere was illegally downloaded or streamed more than 90 million times. The season finale was illegally downloaded or streamed more than 120 million times within its first 72 hours.

Of the 1.03 billion total piracy instances for the season 84.66 percent were streams, 9.12 percent were torrents and 5.59 percent were downloads. "'Game of Thrones' has become one of the biggest global entertainment phenomena of today and activity across piracy networks has been totally unprecedented," said Andy Chatterley, co-founder and CEO of MUSO.

Chatterley added: "It's no secret that HBO has been plagued by security breaches throughout the latest season, which has seen some episodes leak before broadcast and added to unlicensed activity.

"In addition to the scale of piracy when it comes to popular shows, these numbers demonstrate that unlicensed streaming can be a far more significant type of piracy than torrent downloads. At MUSO, we look at all types of piracy, not just torrents, and that is why these numbers have been illuminated."

Apart from the storyline, the seventh season of the hugely popular series was in news for hacked emails and script leaks. The episode 4 of the HBO adaptation of a fantasy novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire" authored by George R.R. Martin, was leaked and made available for viewing on the internet by some persons.

The episode was leaked online from Star India. The executives also faced threats from hackers who demanded money.