For the third year in a row, the fantasy drama Game of Thrones reigns supreme as the world's most pirated TV show, with the HBO production topping Torrent Freaks's annual list.
It was a bumper year for the show's far-reaching global audience, as Game of Thrones completed the hat-trick while also claiming the the record for being the largest simultaneously shared file on Bittorrent ever - a file containing Season 4's finalé The Children received a massive 254,114 simultaneous shares in the hours after the episode was broadcast in the US. The episode broke the record previously held by another Game of Thrones episode, Season 4's fifth, First of his Name.
Although online piracy of television shows is regarded an an industry problem, HBO seems to wear Game of Thrones' title as a badge of honour; while the average size of the pirating audience easily surpasses the show's legitimate viewership, the show's ratings have continued to rise on the subscription network year in, year out. In the last 12 months, Game of Thrones became HBO's most watched programme ever, surpassing the mob drama The Sopranos.
2015, however, will prove an interesting year for the show's pirating fans, as HBO intends to launch HBO GO, a Netflix-style online library of its programming. Whether or not the show will retain its place as the world's most pirated show could well depend on how successfully HBO manages to roll out its new streaming service.
