We know at this point that Game of Thrones is still insanely popular, a fact you're aware of even if you don't watch the show yourself. It bombards social media on Sundays, remains a popular topic of conversation during the week, and torments us all with anticipation between seasons. It is also illegally downloaded more than any other program out there.
The show is simply not accessible to everyone through legal means: you need an HBO cable subscription or access to an HBO Go account to watch it live or on demand. The Go service is available for free to those with the premium channel, but it has struggled mightily under the weight of demand when such a huge number of viewers want to watch at once (especially since many people borrow the accounts of friends and family to watch live).
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As such, the only alternative for many fans who want to watch the latest Game of Thrones episode right away is to turn to torrents. People illegally host the episodes online for others to download for free, and the medieval fantasy program is one of the most-torrented shows of all time.
Last weekend's episode, the second of the fourth season, set new records for simultaneous torrent downloads on BitTorrent. 1.5 million people downloaded The Lion and The Rose during its first day, and another 193,000-plus people shared a single copy of the episode yesterday.
Nobody had ever before shared a single copy of a file with as many as 193,000 people. The previous record (171,000) was, naturally, made by Game of Thrones in the prior season.
Source: TorrentFreak
