Game of Thrones finale breaks piracy records

Say what you will about the bloodbath which was the season finale of Game of Thrones series 5 but it definitely got people talking and watching, and a lot of them were online.

TorrentFreak reports that the episode was illegally downloaded more than 1.5 million times in the eight hours after it was uploaded and it broke the all-time record for the most people sharing the same file at once.

The torrent site expects that the episode will reach 10 million downloads in record time as well, with users turning to the internet as they heard rumours about the horrific events on screen. That's the second episode of the season to break a record, one which was previously held by Game of Thrones itself.

480p versions of the episode remain the most popular with most users wanting a speedy download rather than the better visuals afforded by 720p and 1080p. Downloaders were spread around the entire globe, with the most popular sites being America, the UK, Canada and India.

At one point, 258,151 people were sharing the same file online.

Game of Thrones Season six is likely to air in April, 2016.

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