"Game of Thrones" has been pirated more than a billion times, according to a report released this week by anti-piracy firm MUSO, which revealed that the latest season of the popular HBO series was illegally downloaded and streamed across piracy channels over 1 billion times.
MUSO said these figures far exceeded the number of legal viewings of the show, which averaged at around 31 million viewers per episode.
The report noted that, within the first 72 hours of broadcast, the Season 7 premiere was downloaded and streamed over 90 million times.
This figure was eclipsed by the season finale which drew over 120 million downloads and streams.
Andy Chatterley, CEO of MUSO, said on the organization's website that "Game of Thrones" was one of the "biggest global entertainment phenomena of today," adding that "activity across piracy networks has been totally unprecedented."
Chatterly noted that HBO had experienced various security breaches throughout the latest season. As a result, some episodes had been leaked before official broadcast, adding to unlicensed activity.
"In addition to the scale of piracy when it comes to popular shows, these numbers demonstrate that unlicensed streaming can be a far more significant type of piracy than torrent downloads," he said.
"At MUSO, we look at all types of piracy, not just torrents, and that is why these numbers have been illuminated. It's time to acknowledge this audience; we should view this as an opportunity to understand the bigger picture."
Earlier this year, TorrentFreak reported that HBO had attempted to control piracy of "Game of Thrones" by monitoring popular torrent swarms.
Internet subscribers using their connections to share episodes of Season 7 issued warning notices from the network anti-piracy partner IP Echelon however, these copyright infringement reminders have evidently not deterred pirates.
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