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‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7 Has Been Pirated More Than 1 Billion Times

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Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
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By
Don Reisinger
Don Reisinger
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September 7, 2017, 12:06 PM ET
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Game of Thrones was an exceedingly popular choice for pirates this year, according to newly released data.

The seven episodes in Game of Thrones season 7 have been pirated—or illegally downloaded or streamed—more than 1.029 billion times, digital market tracker Muso reported this week. The company’s checks suggest 84.7% of those views came byway of illegal streaming services, and 5.6% were accessed as a download to user computers.

Muso broke out the piracy by each episode and found the season premiere was tops with more than 187 million pirated downloads and streams. The penultimate episode in the season, episode six, was pirated nearly 185 million times.

In a statement, Muso, which analyzes piracy across different kinds of programming, said that the level of Game of Thrones content access was “unprecedented.” Muso added that the series’ season averaged 31 million viewers per episode through “legal channels” like HBO and its associated apps. Muso’s piracy figures suggest illegal viewing was significantly higher.

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Game of Thrones is a fantasy series on HBO that follows several people around the fictional world as they vie for control over the Seven Kingdoms. The show is one of the most popular in HBO history.

Season 7, which is expected to be the second-to-last in the series, was plagued throughout the year with piracy problems after HBO was hacked. The unidentified hackers threatened to release episodes ahead of their broadcast premiere, and some were indeed leaked online. The script for the final episode in the season also leaked on popular forums site Reddit ahead of its premiere.

Muso noted that Game of Thrones fans wasted no time seeking out content. In fact, within 72 hours of the Season 7 premiere’s broadcast, the episode was downloaded and streamed more than 90 million times, according to the company.

But these numbers might only be the beginning. Muso was quick to note that it analyzed piracy data as of September 3. It’s possible, and perhaps likely, that they will continue to grow as time goes on.

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