HBO / Sky

Another year, another piracy record for Game of Thrones. But while season five has seen episodes illegally downloaded as many as 3.2m times in 24 hours, there's good news for the creators and broadcasters of the show as it's also set legal viewing figure records too.

Sky has revealed that its airing of the season five finale, Mother's Mercy, was the satellite broadcaster's most-watched entertainment programme ever. The episode drew in a total of 3.1 million UK viewers.


That figure comes from those who pulled an all-nighter to watch the episode at 2am on 15 June, in time with the American airing on HBO (after Sky decided to simulcast the season after all) and those who avoided the internet in favour of a more humane showing at 9pm the same day. The number also factors in those who recorded the episode on Sky+ or watched it on demand over the following seven days.

Overall, audiences figures were up 42 percent compared to season four, showing the popularity of the series is only growing. The series also helped Sky break another in-house record, with viewers playing catch up on the earlier seasons leading to 23 million downloads of Sky's "box sets" -- streamable bundles of full seasons, that don't come in a box at all as they lack physical form.

HBO's ratings in the US were similarly buoyed, bringing in 8.11m eager pairs of eyeballs. That number was up roughly 14 percent on 2014's season, though also included some who watched it on catch up services.

However, the high level of piracy is likely to remain disappointing for the networks, especially as efforts have been made on both sides of the Atlantic to make Game of Thrones easier to view legally. In the US, HBO extended its streaming service HBO Now to customers who don't have a home subscription to the premium cable channel, and Sky made similar moves with its own Sky Now.