HBO Go fifth season simulcast HBO Now screener file-sharing The Wars to Come Mother's Mercy BitTorrent spoilers Season seven eighth season Winterfell final season pirated HBO
In 2013, to combat unauthorized downloads, HBO said it intended to make its content more widely available within a week of the US premiere (including HBO Go). In 2015, the fifth season was simulcast to 170 countries and to HBO Now users. On April 11, the day before the season premiere, screener copies of the first four episodes of the fifth season leaked to a number of file-sharing websites. Within a day of the leak, the files were downloaded over 800,000 times; in one week the illegal downloads reached 32 million, with the season five premiere—"The Wars to Come"— pirated 13 million times. The season five finale ("Mother's Mercy") was the most simultaneously shared file in the history of the BitTorrent file sharing protocol, with over 250,000 sharers and over 1.5 million downloads in eight hours. HBO did not send screeners to the press for the sixth season to prevent the spread of unlicensed copies and spoilers. Season seven was either illegally streamed or downloaded over 1 billion times, with the season averaging 14.7 billion illegal views, and the season finale garnering over 120 million illegal views within its first 72 hours. According to anti-piracy company MUSO, the eighth season was illegally downloaded or viewed most in India and China. Illegal viewership for the final season was double the number of legal viewers, with 55 million illegal downloads for the season eight premiere "Winterfell", compared to 17.4 million who watched on HBO platforms.
