It goes without saying that HBO’s Game of Thrones is the most pirated TV show in history. Given the excellent writing, acting, and all the intriguing plot twists and turns and never falling into the same tired cliches that we’ve come to expect from TV shows, it is easy to see why many keep tuning back week after week.
This is also why it doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that according to TorrentFreak, they have estimated that the season finale for season 6 was downloaded a whopping 1 million times from torrents within the first 8 hours. What’s more surprising is that while 1 million is huge, it didn’t exactly break any records.
In fact according to TorrentFreak, those numbers are on par with previous seasons, and could even be lower than some seasons in the past. TorrentFreak suggests that this is possible because newer legal alternatives have since been launched, thus giving viewers a legal way to watch the show instead of having to download it illegally.
Another reason could be that HBO has been more active with taking down illegal downloads than before, thus making it harder for pirates to access the episodes. The numbers have also indicated that viewers are more discerning these days and have opted to download the HD version, versus the SD versions that used to be favored in the past.
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