The shocking “Game of Thrones” Purple Wedding episode has set a new piracy record.
Sunday’s episode — which featured the offing of King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), one of the series’ most hated characters — broke the record for most people sharing a file simultaneously via BitTorrent (193,418), according to TorrentFreak.
Including other “Thrones” torrents, about 1.5 million people downloaded the episode during the first day after its airing on HBO. Most downloaders came from Australia, followed by the US, UK, Canada and the Netherlands.
The previous BitTorrent record was set by “Game of Thrones” last year, when its Season 3 finale was shared by 171, 572 people. Sunday’s episode also tops the recent Season 4 premiere, which was shared 140,000 times.
The HBO fantasy epic ranked as the most illegally downloaded show for the past two years, a title it will likely repeat in 2014.
Sunday’s episode averaged 6.3 million viewers on HBO, down slightly from its record of 6.6 million viewers for last week’s season premiere.