Game of Thrones is back in 2017 and has been the most loved, favored, liked, awaited, watched, subscribed TV series so far. It has broken many records but this one is the least known. It is not set by Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) or Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) or Kit Harington (Jon Snow) or Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen). And not even by the directors. It is by the show itself and the field is

” PIRACY “

Game of Thrones has been pirated the world over in huge numbers. Illegal downloads clocked over 4 million in year 2014 and increased to 7 million in just first quarter of 2015. According to Torrent Freak, a widely known Torrent website claimed it as the most-pirated TV shows every year since 2012.

One specific episode alone was downloaded over 4.3 million times through BitTorrent Trackers. To everyone’s surprise it is greater than the number of broadcast viewers for GoT.

As everyone says, make it available before the pirates make it widely available. Make it cheaper before the expensive pricing makes it a lucrative job for the pirates. The pricing was about 25$ in US, 26 £ in Europe and 52$ in Australia.

Then HBO woke up from the slumber and took the strategy to make it available within a week after the original broadcast. Also, the show was premiered simultaneously in 170 countries to cut the timezone benefits for piracy.

It was so bad that Ambassador of United States in Australia issued a statement in 2013 condemning the piracy of Game of Thrones.

But the world is smarter. The screener copies of the season in 2015 were leaked over the internet and torrents and 0.8 million downloads were done within a day and 32 million in one week for season 5. This had set another set of records as the premiere “The wars to come” has been pirated over 13 million times.

This is the reason why Season 6 did not have any Screeners at all. The piracy did not stop. But HBO still have relaxed attitude towards piracy. If at all anything all of this viewership only provides a social buzz and hence the show becomes popular and popular and see what it is today. Jeff Bewkes (Times Warner CEO) and David Petrarca themselves quoted that over and over again.

In 2015, finally the Game of Thrones was awarded and added to thefor the most pirated TV Series. Bars are set high now.

=> Top Cast of Game of Thrones