Game of Thrones' Fans Won't Stop Pirating Season 7

Last night marked the premiere of Game of Thrones, season 6. Millions tuned in, and those numbers were likely improved by HBO’s free weekend, which gave us the double gift of both Game of Thrones and Lemonade. Even so, not even 24 hours later, TorrentFreak reports that the Season 6 premiere of Game of Thrones has been illegally downloaded over a million times.

This isnt terribly surprising, considering Game of Thrones was the most pirated show of 2015, with over 14-million downloads.

It’s clear that HBO had hoped to stem the flow of pirated content with its free weekend and the HBO NOW standalone streaming service, which it announced about a month before the Season 5 premiere last year. But it didn’t work last year, when the show found itself launched into record-setting piracy territory, and HBO’s attempts to mitigate the piracy problems haven’t appeared to work terribly well this year, either.

This year’s piracy numbers aren’t anywhere near last year’s numbers, but since fewer than 24 hours have elapsed since the show aired, the numbers are staggering. No matter where its many characters end up this season, it seems likely that Game of Thrones might once again find itself atop the throne for “Most Pirated Show.”