The final episode of the third series of Games of Thrones was the most pirated TV show ever, according to TorrentFreak.

The blog says the programme was shared and downloaded on BitTorrents a million times in 24 hours.

It also claims there were more than 170,000 simultaneous peers sharing one file of the episode.

The previous record was for the show's series three opener, which was shared by 160,000 people at the same time.

Most downloads were made in Australia, followed by the United States, Canada and the UK.

'It's stealing'

It was also the most pirated TV show in 2012.

One episode from the second series racked up 4.3m illegal global downloads, according to Torrentfreak.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister, told Newsbeat in March that he thought it was theft.

What you hope is that even though people watch it online, they will still buy the DVD. At the end of the day it's stealing. I know it doesn't feel like it but it is and it's not right Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

He said: "It's funny because there is a little part of you that goes, 'Yeah. We're the most pirated show.' Then you think, 'That's really bad isn't it?'

"What you hope is that even though people watch it online, they will still buy the DVD. You can always hope.

"At the end of the day it's stealing. I know it doesn't feel like it but it is and it's not right."

However, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told Entertainment Weekly in April that it was a "compliment of sorts".

He said: "The demand is there. And it certainly didn't negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network."

Game of Thrones has already been commissioned for a fourth series in 2014.

It's thought it will cover the second half of A Storm of Swords, the third book in George R.R. Martin's series.

The final two books in the series have yet to be written.

The series tied with Breaking Bad for best drama series at Monday night's Critics' Choice TV Awards.

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