It is no secret that HBO’s Game of Thrones is one of the most pirated shows in the world at the moment, and while HBO is certainly doing everything they can to curb piracy, it seems that the latest season of the TV series has seen its piracy surge to an all new high. This is according to data gathered by media intelligence firm Tru Optik.According to their data, the firm found that the first four episodes that were leaked online along with the “A Day in the Life” documentary generated 32 million downloads across 18 million IP addresses during the first week. As for the first episode itself when it was officially launched, it has been estimated that it was downloaded over 13 million times.
Breaking it down by the quality of the download, it has been found that the 720p HD version of the show was the most popular and accounted for 43.5% of the downloads. This was followed by the 480p version at 35.1% and the 1080p copy at 31.4%. This seems to suggest that fans decided to skip the leaked episodes which were released at a lower quality.
In terms of country, the US led the downloads at 10.5%. This was followed by France, Brazil, China, and Russia at 5.6%, 5.6%, 5.4%, and 5.3% respectively. Tru Optik has estimated that the US market alone represents about $44 million in unmonetized demand. “In the US alone, nearly one million consumers downloaded Episode 1, which translates to $44 million in unmonetized demand potential if each of these viewers subscribed to HBO Now for the 3-month duration of GoT Season 5.”
However like we said despite the show enjoying massive success and popularity, HBO is simply not pleased with all the piracy that is going on and are doing all they can to stop it.
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