Game of Thrones season 7 pirated over a BILLION times

According to data collected by piracy solutions agency MUSO, season 7 was pirated over a billion times. A billion. And it was still the most watched season (legally) in the show's history.

As of 3rd September, the season premiere had been illegally viewed over 187 million times, making it the most watched episode of the season, trailed by episode six with 184 million, and the season finale with 143 million.

MUSO CEO Andy Chatterley said, "Game of Thrones has become one of the biggest global entertainment phenomena of today and activity across piracy networks has been totally unprecedented. It's no secret that HBO has been plagued by security breaches throughout the latest season, which has seen some episodes leak before broadcast and added to unlicensed activity."

The stats are likely to have been affected by the various breaches of security that HBO suffered in recent months, which led to several episodes of the show being leaked ahead of the scheduled airdate. This could explain why episode six, which was leaked accidentally by HBO Spain, had more illegal streams and downloads than the finale.

They also suggest that a whole lot more people are streaming and downloading the show illegally than watching it on TV or via HBO's streaming service - which, depending on how you look at it, might tell you something about the state of TV today or something about fervent GoT fans.

It's no secret that Game of Thrones is a popular show, but this is a whole new level of hysteria. Expect those numbers to continue rising throughout the long, long wait until the final season airs.

Game of Thrones season 8 will air some time in 2019, probably...