HBO Now fails to curtail the acceleration of Game of Thrones piracy
HBO will be left somewhat frustrated with the news that Game of Thrones was the most pirated show of 2015.
Despite the roll out of its standalone streaming service, HBO Now, the netowrk has failed to curtail the piracy of its prized show with the number of illegal downloads skyrocketing in the last year.
According to new figures released by TorrentFreak Game of Thrones episodes were downloaded on average 14.4 million times in the past year, almost double last year's 8 million downloads and far above the 8.1 million weekly viewing total for the show.
The news is unsurprising given the fact that the first four episodes of the fifth season leaked online ahead of the television launch. This led to a new all-time piracy record after a single episode had 258,131 peers sharing the file.
Game of Thrones has been now been the most pirated show for four years running and while HBO can take some pride in the obvious popularity of its creation it will remain frustrated at the huge loss it is sustaining at losing subscribers to its streaming service.
In combating illegal downloads HBO may refrain from giving out advanced screeners in bulk like it did last year but as with many content creators it will have resigned itself to the fact that piracy cannot be killed. With streaming becoming increasingly more popular networks' main form of attack against illegal piracy will be to ensure that their streaming services are as efficient and cheap as possible.