Game of Thrones Season 8 Has Been Pirated 58 Million Times

Game of Thrones

It feels like it took an eternity, but last Sunday marked the return of Game of Thrones to our TV sets and the first episode of the final series did not disappoint.

Earlier this month, however, some pretty strong warnings were put out to those who did intend to watch it via… questionable legalmethods. Namely, that since the show was so popular, it was also one of the biggest carriers of malware on torrenting sites.

It seems, however, that people didn’t care and in a report via The Verge, the first episode has already been piratedover 58 million times.

Pirates Ahoy!

Statistics released how that the show has been at least ‘watched’ 58 million times via illegal sources. These breakdown into the following categories;

• 76.6% illegal streams
• 12.2% direct downloads
• 10.8% public torrents
• 0.4% private torrents

While India topped the piracy charts, China came in 2nd with America third. The first two are, perhaps a little more forgivable since the shows are not legitimately aired in those countries.

Popularity Vs Accessibility

While some will clearly argue that these figures show a clear issue with piracy online, others will likely argue that it is due to the rather exclusive nature in which HBO airs the series.

With this being the final season, however, this is surely just the beginning and I’m not entirely sure what can be done to stop it. This is surely just set to be the standard for the final series?…

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!