HBO’s epic fantasy drama has been breaking heads for two seasons, but the premiere of Game of Thrones season 3 has broken a unique – and potentially questionable – record.
While Game of Thrones season 3 premiered on Sunday night to personal-best ratings, HBO’s fan-favorite fantasy was breaking records of a different kind. TorrentFreak reports that the premiere episode, “Valar Dohaeris,” broke the record for the largest BitTorrent swarm download ever. Merely hours after the episode aired, a single torrent was being shared by 163,088 viewers – more than 18,000 downloaders more than the previous record holder. Less than 24 hours after “Valar Dohaeris” premiered, an estimated one million people had illegally downloaded the episode.
Game of Thrones has already become noteworthy for its popularity among pirating viewers, many of whom do not hold subscriptions to HBO. Michael Lombardo, the network’s president of programming, takes an even-keeled view to the show’s dubious distinction, however. “It is a compliment of sorts,” he recently admitted. “The demand is there… [and piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.”
Lombardo also noted that DVD sales for Game of Thrones have not been negatively affected by the proliferation of piracy. And in spite of the impressive number of illegal downloads, the official ratings for the premiere of Game of Thrones season 3 were clearly satisfying enough that HBO picked up the show for a fourth season yesterday.
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