British internet users have downloaded more pirate copies of the latest leaked episodes of Game of Thrones than viewers from anywhere else in the world.

A snapshot of IP addresses sharing leaked episodes of the new season shows nearly one in 10 were based in the UK.

The four leaked episodes, which emerged online at the weekend, appear to have been ripped from review DVDs sent to the press. Their digital watermarks have been blurred.

By Monday morning they were the most pirated files in the world, with each having been downloaded around a million times from public torrent sites alone, TorrentFreak reported.

The first episode was the most popular, with more than 135,000 users sharing it and more than a million pirate copies made, according to the site, which added its figures are likely to be half the true total of pirated copies once streaming and direct downloads are taken into account.

The UK led the way in pirate downloads, with 9.8% of IP addresses sharing the content based in Britain, followed by the US with 9.1%, India 7.8%, Canada 5.4% and France 4.2%. Other countries hungry to see the latest developments in Westeros were Greece, The Netherlands, Australia, Brazil and the Philippines.



The first episode of the HBO show, which aired at 9pm ET in the US, was simulcast in 170 countries, but Sky Atlantic, which broadcasts Game of Thrones in the UK, decided not to take part in the simulcast, showing it first at 9pm BST on Monday.

Sky said it would not comment on illegal download figures. It pointed out that it plans to simulcast Game of Thrones with the HBO broadcast from next week.

HBO said: “Sadly, it seems the leaked four episodes of the upcoming season of Game of Thrones originated from within a group approved by HBO to receive them. We’re actively assessing how this breach occurred.”

Even before the weekend leak,the hotly anticipated return of the programme was said to have prompted a huge surge in iDanternet piracy, with fans worldwide making more than 100,000 illegal downloads of previous series’ episodes every day. A snapshot of global illegal downloading by the anti-piracy firm Irdeto found more than 7m episodes from seasons one to four were downloaded between 5 February and 4 April.

The UK ranked fifth in a league table of countries where internet users were making pirate copies, according to Irdeto’s research. Game of Thrones was already the most-popular TV series among Torrent file sharers. Torrents are a form of peer-to-peer filesharing that allows users to download files from more than one sharer at once.

Game of Thrones producer Greg Spence said last week that he was concerned about leaks of the latest series. “The cast is looping all over the world, sending files back and forth,” he told the Denver Post. “The files are watermarked, and editors have to confirm in writing that they have deleted them.”

The show, based on George RR Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novel series, has attracted a cult following since first airing in 2011, attracting a throng of “thronies”. It has won 14 Emmys in the US. In the UK, it won the Radio Times audience award at the Baftas in 2013 – a prize that it has also been nominated for this year.