The exciting finale of season 4 of “Game of Thrones” was viewed by an estimated 7.1 million people last Sunday. However, the episode broke another record, the most pirated episode. The illegal file sharing site, Torrent Freak, estimates that nearly 1.5 million downloads were made within 12 hours of the episode’s premier. That makes “The Children” episode the most pirated hour in TV history, with over 250,000 people sharing the same file.
Surprisingly HBO is taking the piracy incident in stride. The head of programming for HBO stated last year to Entertainment Weekly “piracy was a ‘compliment of sorts’ and ‘certainly didn’t negatively impact DVD sales.'” “Game of Thrones” attracts an average viewership of over 18.6 million people, making it one of the most popular series in HBO history.
Season 5 promises to be even more exciting with a major character, Catelyn Stark, wife of Ned Stark returning from the dead. The episode is tentatively being called “Lady Stoneheart” and will air in late 2015.
