First episode of Game of Thrones series three illegally downloaded a million times in 24 hours

Tuesday 02 April 2013 16:17 BST

Joe Dempsie and Maisie Williams in a scene from Game of Thrones

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The season premiere of Game of Thrones series three has already been downloaded illegally more than a million times just a day after it was broadcast on Sky Atlantic.

According to blog Torrent Freak the hotly anticipated episode has broken multiple records with “mind-boggling” numbers of users flocking to download it.

The most downloads occurred in London although Australia was the most popular destination for the pirated file overall.

More than 160,000 people accessed the same torrent (video file) at the same time, beating the previous record which happened after the season premiere of TV show Heroes which attracted 144,663 people.

In 2012 Game of Thrones was the most illegally downloaded TV-show of the year.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

First episode of Game of Thrones series three illegally downloaded a million times in 24 hours

Join our commenting forum

Thank you for registering