MUSO has been tracking Game of Thrones activity across piracy networks since the Season 7 premiere and can reveal that Season 7 of Game of Thrones had exceeded one billion illegal downloads and streams across piracy channels by the 3rd September 2017.
With official figures for legal channels estimated to average 31 million viewers per episode, these figures show that piracy eclipsed legal viewings. While this season was the most watched legally, the unprecedented popularity of the show has also seen fans across the world take to unlicensed channels to stream and download episodes in absolutely staggering numbers.
Within the first 72 hours of broadcast, the Season 7 premiere was downloaded and streamed over 90 million times and, as expected, this was overshadowed by the season finale which accumulated a figure of more than 120 million downloads and streams. However, episode 6 had received 29 per cent more instances of piracy consumption than the season finale by the 3rd September, which is likely due to the leak that occurred before the episode officially aired.
In addition, streaming activity accounted for a massive 85 per cent, whereas torrents and private trackers made up less than 10 per cent of the billion downloads and streams:
Andy Chatterley (co-founder and CEO of MUSO) commented:
“Game of Thrones has become one of the biggest global entertainment phenomena of today and activity across piracy networks has been totally unprecedented. It’s no secret that HBO has been plagued by security breaches throughout the latest season, which has seen some episodes leak before broadcast and added to unlicensed activity. In addition to the scale of piracy when it comes to popular shows, these numbers demonstrate that unlicensed streaming can be a far more significant type of piracy than torrent downloads.
At MUSO, we look at all types of piracy, not just torrents, and that is why these numbers have been illuminated. It’s time to acknowledge this audience; we should view this as an opportunity to understand the bigger picture.”
Total Global Downloads and Streams by Episode (up to and including 3rd September 2017)
Episode one: 187,427,575
Episode two: 123,901,209
Episode three: 116,027,851
Episode four: 121,719,868
Episode five: 151,569,560
Episode six: 184,913,279
Episode seven: 143,393,804
All Episode Bundles – Season 7: 834,522
TOTAL (as of 3rd September) = 1,029,787,668
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