Game of Thrones holds its record as the most torrented TV show with Season 7

Euron is happy piracy is alive and well
Euron is happy piracy is alive and well

Official Game of Thrones viewership figures keep climbing year after year, with season seven smashing through the show’s previous records, getting an average of more than 10 million people watching the show on HBO’s first airing. But many more people are watching, through repeated airings, online services, international broadcasters… and also through less than legitimate means: as we reported on September, more people torrented season seven than any previous season. But it goes further than that!

TorrentFreak reports that with this latest season Game of Thrones held onto its title as the most torrented TV show, for the sixth year in a row (that is, since season two.)

Despite its plummeting viewership on AMC, The Walking Dead remains in second place as the most downloaded TV show through BitTorrent, and a new show took the third place on the podium this year: Rick and Morty (a great show, despite its fandom.)

According to TorrentFreak, “the highest number of people actively sharing an episode across several torrents was 400,000 at its peak, right after the season finale came online.” This is not surprising, as the first airing of the finale broke a record on HBO as well; it was watched on more than 12 million screens across the United States.

Of course, these figures only take into account those who downloaded the episodes through BitTorrent. Many used other torrenting or P2P (peer to peer) programs, or other avenues altogether, such as direct downloads and streaming. To be honest, it’s probably impossible to know just how many people downloaded season seven, though you may recall we recently got close to a definitive figure, and it’s pretty crazy!

26 Comments

  1. Hodor!

    And Feliz Navidad, Luka! (I hope the spelling isn’t too far wrong…) Thank you for all your insightful and good-humoured contributions this year!

  2. Congratulations….? i am sorry….? I lirerally don’t know what to say😂

    Feliz Navidad y feliz año nuevo Luka!

  3. Grrrrrr. Intellectual property theft raises my hackles. Artists need to make a living or eventually there won’t be any more art.

  4. Firannion,

    This is something I tried to add to my first comment but the editing time ran out.

    Torrenting intellectual property theft might not matter so much to behemoths like HBO and their hit show GoT – they still get enough law-abiding, paying customers like me and it’s all hype for them – but it breeds this sense of entitlement that is killing smaller-scale creative endeavours.

    It equals to certain groups of people giving the middle finger to hard-working creative people and saying “you don’t deserve to get paid for your hard work because I’m clever enough to steal your work and give it away to others for free, hahaha!”

    That’s not right.

    Imagine a car mechanic that fixed your car, then you blatantly laughing in his/her face: “I hacked your billing system so you won’t get paid, haha! By the way, I love how well you fixed my car, haha. Just suck it up because it’s the Internet age. Haha!”

  5. Luka – “a great show despite its fandom”. This reads that you enjoy Rick & Morty, but you cannot abide the people who enjoy the show. Is that how you meant it?

  6. talvikorppi:
    Firannion,

    This is something I tried to add to my first comment but the editing time ran out.

    Torrenting intellectual property theft might not matter so much to behemoths like HBO and their hit show GoT – they still get enough law-abiding, paying customers like me and it’s all hype for them – but it breeds this sense of entitlement that is killing smaller-scale creative endeavours.

    It equals to certain groups of people giving the middle finger to hard-working creative people and saying “you don’t deserve to get paid for your hard work because I’m clever enough to steal your work and give it away to others for free, hahaha!”

    That’s not right.

    Imagine a car mechanic that fixed your car, then you blatantly laughing in his/her face: “I hacked your billing system so you won’t get paid, haha! By the way, I love how well you fixed my car, haha. Just suck it up because it’s the Internet age. Haha!”

    I agree, but I do know quite a few people who watch the show, then buy the BR, they’re tired of paying for shit they don’t want.
    I had cable for decades including HBO,Showtime and the like, then they started bloating shit and so I dropped to inet only. then they double the internet prices because tv side was declining, for reasons I stated. Instead of allowing ala-cart they screwed the internet only folks.
    I went with roku for HBO, ST and Starz I rotate when the series I like begins.
    I have a small roof antenna for the 30 so local channels, and the HD is better then what comes through the cable lines.

  7. Grail King,

    I think the lesson to draw is that nowadays people legally watch in many different ways, which differ from country to country. Prices and terms and conditions also vary from country to country, so no generalised, sweeping statements can be made.

  8. talvikorppi: It equals to certain groups of people giving the middle finger to hard-working creative people and saying “you don’t deserve to get paid for your hard work because I’m clever enough to steal your work and give it away to others for free, hahaha!”

    Ah, but you have to understand that there is a certain mentality among the “working class” that nothing that other people do is really work. Artists are dead beats who play like kids and then expect $$$ for it. Athletes play kids games and expect $$$ for it. Scientists pursue childish questions and expect $$$ for it. I, however, do something that a reasonably intelligent chimp could do and would happily do for bananas with extra whip cream: that is real work! Now, I’m going to put on my MAGA cap and spend my big tax cut on Bud Lite, thank you very much….

  9. Wimsey: Now, I’m going to put on my MAGA cap and spend my big tax cut on Bud Lite, thank you very much
.

    Nice, but Pabst Blue Ribbon is really the ultimate choice of red neck beer drinkers. Though, I would think Bud Lite is right up there too.

  10. Firannion,

    I had HBO but downloaded the episodes anyway, because otherwise I had to wait 17 hours before I could watch it legally.

    Now HBO doesn’t exist anymore here :’)

  11. Mr Derp: Nice, but Pabst Blue Ribbon is really the ultimate choice of red neck beer drinkers. Though, I would think Bud Lite is right up there too.

    Damn! Oh well, I have always known that if my life depends on being able to pass for trash, then I’m hosed! 😀

  12. i pay 110 bucks amonth for my cable with hbo ,you know GOT isnt even on the demand option. so fuck them . i watch old episodes on gomovies or 123movies or whichever site sharing things working that day. these sites get shut down all the time and 2 more pop up. i would cancel my cable but i love live sports.

  13. Wimsey: heh, that could be said of every franchise with a fandom!😎

    True, but that doesn’t mean one should endeavor to insult a fandom for the sake of comic relief.

  14. It would’ve been cool if they had built up Euron starting from the very beginning, showing little glimpses of his ship in the background, kind of as easter eggs and maybe the relic he should’ve gotten last season then eventually have him take down the Night King and be the ultimate baddy. And obviously not this goofy incarnation of Euron, a more elegant one with more stature, otherworldly if you will.

  15. LatrineDiggerBrian: It would’ve been cool if they had built up Euron starting from the very beginning, showing little glimpses of his ship in the background, kind of as easter eggs and maybe the relic he should’ve gotten last season then eventually have him take down the Night King and be the ultimate baddy.

    That would have been horrible storytelling. Stuff introduced in Series X needs to be important by the end of Series X: otherwise, don’t put it into the tale until Series X+1. This type of audience has little tolerance for extraneous detail and less tolerance for things not being recently explained when they become important. After all, they are much (much!) too busy and they tend to hold even entertainment up to the standards to which they are held: and if they include extraneous stuff that will not be relevant until the next report/case/project/paper in this one OR if they make the mistake of assuming that their audience/clients/classes/colleagues will remember things from their last report/case/project/paper, then they get reamed.

    And the idea that Euron or anyone else is going to find some relic to take down the Night King is bad fan-fiction that completely misses the story. After all, that’s the sort of tale that Martin disses: why would he be telling it? We saw the play as it could end already: but the way to get the desired ending has nothing to do with relics.

  16. MeeraReed: True, but that doesn’t mean one should endeavor to insult a fandom for the sake of comic relief.

    Why not? OK, sure, it is low-hanging fruit, but it’s a joke everyone gets. The public is well-aware that hardcore fans judge these sorts of franchises – Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. – on criteria that are at often silly or even flatout stupid. At this point, the assumption has become that when these things are done correctly, then vocal hardcore fans are going to hate it: and if the hardcores like it, then it probably is pretty bad. (In general, there is a good negative correlation between public & critical reviews, and how hardcores rate them, so this has empirical support.)

    The one simple truth is that the casual viewers/readers often have a much better idea of what really is happening than do the hardcores because Joe Viewer & Jane Reader are just looking at the story and not getting bogged down in the minutia. They don’t get sidetracked wondering if something from last week’s Doctor Who is building on some episode last shown in 1968, or whether Arwen must be the one wearing one fo the Three because she calls the river, etc., etc. Instead, they see the story, and often have a much clearer idea of what the story being told is than do the hardcores.

    Because the “Anoraks” or “Trekkies” or “Potterheads” or “Tolkienistas” or whatevers are not unique to any one franchise, they really are fair game for public jokes. I still remember David Lettermen’s crack 15 years ago about how the fans protesting Spiderman’s “organic” webslinging met up with Tolkien fans still protesting Tom Bombadil being cut from Lord of the Rings, but their bigger protest got derailed by playing Dungeons and Dragons in one of their mother’s basement: and how loudly the audience laughed!

  17. Wimsey,

    Because Luka is no longer one who appears in the comments- there should be some semblance of professionalism in his writing. Insulting a large portion of people for a joke that wasn’t funny in the first place does nothing to encourage participation in this community. It was lazy writing; worse, it wasn’t necessary.

  18. LatrineDiggerBrian,

    I’m with you on this one, LDB. Though I’m a “pre-books” fan, I think your description of the “goofy incarnation of Euron” was apt.

    It’s like he belonged in a different show in a different time period, and he got beamed into the world of GoT by a transporter malfunction.

    When he sauntered into the throne room in that Project Runway outfit and “hey! look at me!” attitude, I half expected a production assistant to rush onto the set and tell him:

    “Uh, excuse me, sir, but Deadpool 2 is filming next door.”

  19. MeeraReed,

    I take exception:

    “Because Luka is no longer one who appears in the comments- there should be some semblance of professionalism in his writing.”

    That’s a non sequitur. What does Luka’s presence or absence in the comments have to do with the “professionalism in his writing”?
    Also, Luka’s writing has been uniformly professional and its quality has been excellent. I’ve read just about everything he’s written since he started contributing to this site.

    ”Insulting a large portion of people for a joke that wasn’t funny in the first place does nothing to encourage participation in this community.”

    He didn’t insult anybody, let alone “a large portion of people”, whatever that means. [“A large portion of people” sounds like a hearty helping of Soylent Green.]

    ”It was lazy writing; worse, it wasn’t necessary.”

    Resorting to that tired old cliche “lazy writing” is itself lazy writing. What was the “it” you had problems with? Popping in to accuse a staff writer of “lazy writing” reminds me of the occasional interlopers who come onto this site to whine “D&D are hacks!” without explaining why.

    All I got from your comment is an unfounded attack on his professionalism based on some hypersensitivity on your part. Seriously, if you found something he wrote objectionable, why not respectfully disagree and articulate your reasons? Otherwise, your grievance “does nothing to encourage participation in this community.”

    I am not here to serve as Luka’s PR department. Perhaps he felt your criticisms were too trivial to warrant rebuttal. I don’t know. What I do know is that he has devoted incredible amounts of his own time and effort to bring news to this community, and foster interesting discussions.

    I look forward to your cogent, detailed, and civil version of your original comment.

  20. Ten Bears:
    MeeraReed,

    I take exception:

    “Because Luka is no longer one who appears in the comments- there should be some semblance of professionalism in his writing.”

    That’s a non sequitur. What does Luka’s presence or absence in the comments have to do with the “professionalism in his writing”? Also, Luka’s writing has been uniformly professional and its quality has been excellent. I’ve read just about everything he’s written since he started contributing to this site.

    ”Insultinga large portion of people for a joke that wasn’t funny in the first place does nothing to encourage participation in this community.”

    He didn’t insult anybody, let alone “a large portion of people”, whatever that means. [“A large portion of people” sounds like a hearty helping of Soylent Green.]

    ”It was lazy writing; worse, it wasn’t necessary.”

    Resorting to that tired old cliche “lazy writing” is itself lazy writing.What was the “it” you had problems with? Popping in to accuse a staff writer of “lazy writing” reminds me of the occasional interlopers who come onto this site to whine “D&D are hacks!” without explaining why.

    All I got from your comment is an unfounded attack on his professionalism based on some hypersensitivity on your part. Seriously, if you found something he wrote objectionable, why not respectfully disagree and articulate your reasons? Otherwise, your grievance “does nothing to encourage participation in this community.”

    I am not here to serve as Luka’s PR department. Perhaps he felt your criticisms were too trivial to warrant rebuttal. I don’t know. What I do know is that he has devoted incredible amounts of his own time and effort to bring news to this community, and foster interesting discussions.

    I look forward to your cogent, detailed, and civil version of your original comment.

    I did articulate my reasons. I first asked the question of Luka about his intent, but since Wimsey replied, I replied in turn to Wimsey’s comments. I don’t know what Luka’s true meaning was (neither do you) – hence my original question on the matter.

    If you’re going to try to insult someone on a matter you have nothing to do with, at least have the decency to read all the comments concerning said topic.

    By the way, if he did mean to insult – even in a joke manner – that is lazy and insulting. Is he assuming that we are not fans of the show? Or if we are fans of the show that we are so enlightened as to be in on his inside joke (that was so poor that one is not even sure if indeed it was a joke)?

    If he didn’t mean to insult then he needs to reflect more on his writing style before submitting.

    Yes, Luka has done great work. That doesn’t make him perfect. It also doesn’t mean we are not allowed to call him out when we know he can do a better job.

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