I think it’s safe to assume that we all know what happened last week on Game of Thrones (and if you don’t, then turn back now). Finally, at long last, King Joffrey got what was coming to him and fans of the show everywhere rejoiced. It was perhaps one of the most satisfying moments in television history. I don’t think any other character, in any other series, deserved to die as much as the young king did (perhaps an overstatement, but I’m sticking to it).
The episode had everyone talking and now, according to Deadline, it has made piracy history. Over 193,000 BitTorrent users shared a single copy of the episode and 1.5 million people downloaded it within the first 24 hours of it being available. TorrentFreak calls those numbers “unprecedented.” For comparison sake, the previous record holder was the show’s season 3 finale, which 171,000 people shared and 1 million people downloaded.
Game of Thrones has long been the most pirated television show, but these statistics truly are staggering. I’m betting that we’ll see those numbers go even higher, too. According to those who have read the books (which I unfortunately haven’t), we’re in for even more shocking moments as the season progresses.
