“Game
of Thrones” is the king of the Internet — at least when it comes to illegal downloading.
The epic HBO fantasy series is said to be en route to being the most pirated series on TV.
Since the Season 2 premiere aired early last month, episodes have been downloaded more than 25 million times, according to BitTorrent tracking and analysis firm Big Champagne.
“Thrones” reached an all-time daily download high after the April 29 episode, when it was downloaded more than 2.5 million times in a day.
By comparison, the episode was watched by 3.9 million people on HBO, according to Nielsen. “It certainly appears to be the most pirated show of the year,” John Robinson, a senior media analyst with Big Champagne, told forbes.com.
He noted that the volume of Season 2 illegal downloads is outpacing that seen for the sixth season of Showtime’s “Dexter,” which premiered in the fall and was the most pirated show of 2011, according to Torrentfreak.
(Season 1 of “Thrones” was the second-most-downloaded show of 2011.)
“Thrones” is also consistently listed as one of the most popular shows on filesharing community site The Pirate Bay, a fact that Robinson said is a “pretty in-your-face leading indicator of the huge volume at which this is being shared.”
While the “Thrones” fan base — tech-savvy males most likely to use filesharing sites in the first place — might be to blame for the impressive download numbers, the lack of alternative paid (but non-cable subscriber) methods of watching the show is likely to be a factor.
“Thrones” is not available on Hulu or Netflix, and iTunes only has Season 1 for sale.