‘Game Of Thrones’ The Most Pirated TV Series, But Only Blu-Ray Will Offer Bonus Scene


Game of Thrones aired its Season 5 finale, and it was the most pirated show ever. Entertainment Weekly reports that piracy tracking site TorrentFreak found that 14.4 million people illegally downloaded the Game of Thrones Season 5 finale. The runner up is The Walking Dead, with “only” 6.9 million downloads for a single show.

However, this is not the first time this has happened. Game of Thrones has shown in incredible amount of consistency when it comes to being the most pirated TV series. Back in 2013, BBC reported that Game of Thrones was the most pirated series on BitTorrent, with a million shares and downloads within 24 hours. In addition, there was an episode from Season 2 that had 4.3 million illegal downloads.

While it might seem as though that many people pirating the show this way is a good thing, the truth of the matter came from Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister. He feels that when it comes down to it, it’s stealing.

“It’s funny because there is a little part of you that goes, ‘Yeah. We’re the most pirated show.’ Then you think, ‘That’s really bad isn’t it?’ What you hope is that even though people watch it online, they will still buy the DVD. You can always hope. At the end of the day it’s stealing. I know it doesn’t feel like it but it is and it’s not right.”

At the time of the 2013 pirating of the show, how did HBO feel about it? According to HBO programming president Michael Lombardo, who spoke about it with Entertainment Weekly, it’s not so bad.

“I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts. The demand is there. And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.”

One of Lombardo’s main concerns is not that the show was being pirated, but that the people who downloaded it might not get to see a good quality copy.

“One of my worries is about the copies [downloaders are] seeing. The production values of this show are so incredible. So I’m hoping that in the purloined different generation of cuts that the show is holding up.”

Of course, when it comes to Season 5, the fans who pirate the shows from the season will miss out on the bonus material that is to be included on the Blu-Ray version of the series. Movie News Guide reports that Season 5 will be released on Blu-Ray in March, and it will include a bonus feature called “The Dance Of Dragons.”

Part of this new feature is an animated history of Westeros that takes place prior to the events of the show. There is also a 20-minute history on the Targaryens and all the battles mentioned in the series.

Aside from the absolute success of the show, fans must remember that if it wasn’t for the creative genius of George R. R. Martin, there would be no television series. Martin’s books have set the stage for everything, but Bustle reports that Martin can be ruthless when it comes to killing off characters.

It was the death of Ned Stark that paved the way for a lot that has happened in the series, and Bustle writer Jordana Lipsitz wonders what the series would be like if he wasn’t killed. Some of her theories include that the entire Stark family would move back to Winterfell, the Red Wedding would have been nice, there would have been direwolf pups, and Ned and Jon would still be having a good time.

Perhaps we will never know what it would be like if Ned Stark was still alive, but apparently, the show is doing just fine without him. Check out this tease of Season 6 posted on Twitter.

[Photo by Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock]

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