Since the premiere roughly four years ago of HBO's "Game of Thrones," it has been the top pirated television series on the web followed by AMC's "The Walking Dead" and CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" on the second and third spot, respectively.
The original HBO series became the most downloaded television show for four years straight, with an estimated record of 14.4 million downloads through BitTorrent, according to Torrent Freak. The most downloaded of the entire episode was the season 5 finale, beating other TV shows including AMC's "The Walking Dead" and CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" by a landslide.
The same source stated that the total amount of downloads happened exceeded the number of traditional viewers in the U.S. in the first week after the show first aired. "The Walking Dead" had an estimated 6.9 million downloads and 4.4 million downloads of "The Big Bang Theory," overall.
The most popular quality among the downloaders are lower quality copies, those which have 480 progressive scan. Now, pirates have shown an increasing interest for better or higher quality releases compared to prior years. For this, downloaders began downloading videos having 720p and the highest progressive scan of 1080.
The amount of piracy "Game of Thrones" is having didn't come out as a surprise. Entertainment Weekly said that HBO tried to reduce piracy this year by airing episodes of season 5 on the same date worldwide. This is an effort to eradicate complaints from international fans of the show who wait long after the U.S. premieres. Before the season premiere, the first four episodes of "Game of Thrones" were leaked online which made a major stumbling block for the network.
Unfortunately, the download numbers continue to rise despite the efforts made by the company. A record breaking 258,131 peers shared the same torrent file. Despite all these, the hit HBO series has still dominated the ratings, having attracted more or less than 20 million viewers and garnered 12 awards during the Emmy Awards.
"Game of Thrones" season 6 will premiere on HBO in April 2016.
