--- description: Illegal downloading of Game of Thrones has reached record highs in season five, despite HBO's new streaming service. title: 'Game of Thrones' Piracy Reaches Record High image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aecc9caf01526c0/6987eb71cd1bbaf2716f8fe2/gameofthrones15_38.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _Game of Thrones_ Piracy Reaches Record High  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 22, 2015 2:55 PM CUT  HBO  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 22, 2015 2:55 PM CUT Illegal downloading of _Game of Thrones_ has reached a record high in season five, despite HBO’s [new streaming service](http://time.com/3774026/hbo-now-launches-game-of-thrones/ "undefined"). According to _Entertainment Weekly_, the season five premiere was illegally downloaded 13 million times, a new record for the series. Of those downloads, 10% were from the U.S., more than from any other country. One estimate found that piracy of the premiere episode cost $44 million in lost U.S. revenue, _EW_ reports. But the show’s legal viewership is also at an all-time high: the season five premiere had a record 8 million live viewers on HBO. [Read more at _EW.com_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/04/21/game-thrones-piracy-record "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3831288/game-of-thrones-piracy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3831288/game-of-thrones-piracy/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Piracy Reaches Record High","datePublished":"2015-04-22T14:55:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:34:58.044Z","description":"The first episode was illegally downloaded 13 million times","url":"https://time.com/3831288/game-of-thrones-piracy/","keywords":["Television","game of thrones"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aecc9caf01526c0/6987eb71cd1bbaf2716f8fe2/gameofthrones15_38.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3aecc9caf01526c0/6987eb71cd1bbaf2716f8fe2/gameofthrones15_38.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"gameofthrones15_38","caption":"","creditText":"HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3831288/game-of-thrones-piracy/","name":"Game of Thrones Piracy Reaches Record High"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"10 Most Iconic Movie Props Ever Sold","description":"With Premiere Props Hollywood Auction Extravaganza XIII set to sell some impressive Hollywood memorabilia, TIME looks back on how much some of the most iconic movie props have fetched.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6TcJ3ReX/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-21T23:59:31.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6TcJ3ReX.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3831288/game-of-thrones-piracy/","duration":"PT2M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3831288/game-of-thrones-piracy/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```