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  ===Cultural influence===
  Although ''Game of Thrones'' was dismissed by some critics, its success has been credited with an increase in the popularity of the fantasy genre. On the eve of the second season's premiere, according to CNN, "after this weekend, you may be hard pressed to find someone who isn't a fan of some form of epic fantasy" and cited Ian Bogost as saying that the series continues a trend of successful screen adaptations beginning with Peter Jackson's 2001 ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy and the ''Harry Potter'' films establishing fantasy as a mass-market genre; they are "gateway drugs to fantasy fan culture". The success of the show led to a number of fantasy series being commissioned on television, including a retelling of the ''Lord of the Rings'' by Amazon Studios. According to Neil Gaiman, whose works ''Good Omens'' and ''American Gods'' were adapted for TV, ''Game of Thrones'' did help change attitudes towards fantasy on television, but mainly it made big budgets for fantasy series more acceptable. The success of the genre had been attributed by writers to a longing for escapism in popular culture, frequent female nudity and a skill in balancing lighthearted and serious topics (dragons and politics, for example) which provided it with a prestige enjoyed by conventional, top-tier drama series.
  The series' popularity increased sales of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' novels (republished in tie-in editions), which remained at the top of bestseller lists for months. According to ''The Daily Beast'', ''Game of Thrones'' was a favorite of sitcom writers and the series has been referred to in other TV series. With other fantasy series, it has been cited as a reason for an increase in the purchase (and abandonment) of huskies and other wolf-like dogs.
  ''Game of Thrones'' has added to the popular vocabulary. A first season scene in which Petyr Baelish explains his motives (or background) while prostitutes have sex in the background gave rise to the word "sexposition" for providing exposition with sex and nudity. "Dothraki", the series' nomadic horsemen, was ranked fourth in a September 2012 Global Language Monitor list of words from television most used on the Internet. In 2012, the media used "Game of Thrones" as a figure of speech or comparison for situations of intense conflict and deceit, such as US healthcare politics, the Syrian Civil War and the ousting of Bo Xilai from the Chinese government.
  In 2019, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift told ''Entertainment Weekly'' that several songs on her 2017 album ''Reputation'' were inspired by characters and plots of ''Game of Thrones''. 
  "Khaleesi" became more popular as a name for baby girls in the United States. In the novels and the TV series, "khaleesi" is not a name, but the title of the wife of a khal (warlord) in the Dothraki language, held by Daenerys Targaryen.
  ''Game of Thrones'' has also become a subject of scientific inquiry. In 2016, researchers published a paper analyzing emotional sentiment in online public discourse associated with the unfolding storyline during the fourth season. The analysis purported to be able to distinguish discussions about the storyline of an episode from media critiques or assessments of a specific actor's performance. In 2018, Australian scientists conducted a survival analysis and examined the mortality among 330 important characters during the first seven seasons of ''Game of Thrones''. In 2019, the Australian branch of the Red Cross conducted a study using international human rights laws to determine which of the ''Game of Thrones'' characters had committed the most war crimes during the first seven seasons of the show.