Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister | Photo Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO
Last week, the premiere of Season 8, Episode 1 of Game of Thrones was released early (no thanks to internet pirates) approximately an hour before it’s actual air time on HBO. This week, Episode 2 leaked just six hours before its actual air time, according to a recent Forbes report.
Game of Thrones, one of television’s most pirated original series, returns tonight with the second episode of Season 8. Yet, somehow, it’s already made its way across the internet, hitting every peer-to-peer site and spoiler site imaginable. And the source of the leak?
Amazon Prime.
For whatever reason, the episode was given the go to air live almost an hour ago in Germany on Amazon Prime. While it’s already been taken down, the episode has already made its way to almost every peer-to-peer site and spoiler site imaginable.
There are NO SPOILERS in this article. Readers welcome.
For years, HBO has gone through painful lengths to protect its intellectual property, especially with respect to Game of Thrones. But, in today’s digital age, not only does it need to guard against potential external threats, but internal mechanisms, such as its own global apps and streaming services charged with distributing the content.
Season 8, Episode 1 Was Pirated Over 55 Million Times
During the first 24 hours, the return of Game of Thrones for its eighth season, was pirated more than 55 million times.
If you remember, the Season 7 premiere was pirated 90 million times in its first three days. However, this is still a much faster rate, and three times the number of legal viewings, which totaled around 17.4 million people. Indeed, the series still broke HBO records with its massive ratings, according to the Associated Press.
But where are these pirates coming from? For one, India, which has absolutely no access to HBO, thus no legal means of watching the show, tops the piracy list at 9.5 million times, with China following at 5.2 million. However, the Chinese version of the episode that aired was a censored version that cut out most of the naughty bits…so basically, the entire episode. For a premiere, that sucks, and for Game of Thrones itself, that truly sucks. So, it kind of makes sense why both India and China are so readily determined to gain access to the episode as early as possible.
However, for the United States, trailing at 4 million pirates, we should know better. Come on people, cough up the $10-$20/month and buy an HBO Go or HBO Now subscription. There’s no excuse to be stealing content—everyone streams now, nobody should be stealing.
If You Have Seen It, Don’t Be the Asshole to Ruin It
And if you happen to be one of those fans who just couldn’t wait like the rest of us, don’t be the asshole to ruin it for us. Seriously, we will hunt you down and feed you to the White Walkers.
So, What Can We Expect?
Episode 2 officially kicks off tonight at 8:00 p.m. CST / 9:00 p.m. EST on HBO. The episode, titled “The Night King Cometh,” based off its trailer, depicts Jaime Lannister presenting himself before “Queen” Daenerys and Sansa Stark, most likely begging for forgiveness and offering his sword to dethrone his evil bitch of a sister, Cersei.
But what questions do we want the answers to upfront and center?
- Will Jaime live to see another day at the side of Winterfell?
- How will Jon react to the news that he just learned about his heritage and claim to the Iron Throne?
- More importantly, will Snow continue fornicating with his aunt, as hot as it may be?
- Does Bran creepily sitting by the Weirwood tree, have a glimpse into what many presume to be his icy cold future as the Night King?
Unless you’re the German science students who think they’ve cracked the code on who dies in the final season, I guess we will have to wait and see.
