While HBO and Foxtel were celebrating record ratings for return of smash hit Game of Thrones, internet pirates were busy setting their own records.
Monday's third season premiere garnered 224,000 consolidated viewers on Foxtel's Showcase channel – nearly double that of last year's first episode, which attracted a total audience of 113,000.
MCN strategic integration director Elizabeth Minogue said the success was the result of Foxtel's fast-tracking deal with HBO, signed late last year, which sees episodes air in Australia just two hours after the US.
But according to data from file-sharing news website TorrentFreak, the show's return also generated unprecedented activity on BitTorrent sites – and Australia has kept its crown with the highest piracy rate of any country.
With well over one million downloads in less than a day, fans rushing to grab the episode managed to break the record for the largest ever BitTorrent swarm with more than 160,000 simultaneous peers. The previous record was held by the NBC show Heroes with 144,663 peers.
Australia came out number three in terms of total downloaders behind the US and the UK, but with a population of just 22 million, has by far the highest piracy rate. Sydney and Melbourne were number three and four by download location, behind London and Paris.
HBO has had somewhat of a love-hate relationship with illegal downloads of its flagship show – on the one hand, it must be seen to be against piracy of any kind, but on the other, it takes the unprecedented level of interest as a compliment. Indeed, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said as much in an interview with Entertainment Weekly on Sunday.
And last year, David Petrarca, one of the show's director's, told the Perth Writers Festival illegal downloads didn't matter and actually helped contribute to the show's 'cultural buzz'. He was forced to retract his comments the next day after they were widely reported in the media.
One thing is certain: Game of Thrones is already well on track to be the most popular – and pirated – show of 2013. The second episode will air on Foxtel's Showcase on Monday 8 April at 3:35pm.
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