HBO makes Game of Thrones fans watch ice melt on Facebook Live for launch date

HBO unveiled the Game of Thrones season seven start date by making more than 100,000 fans watch a block of ice melt on Facebook Live. Yes. Really. Thousands of people watched ice melt for a TV show.

The video has since amassed over 3m views on Facebook, but the livestream itself was not as ‘cool’ a process as HBO would have liked – with technical difficulties forcing the ice off air temporarily around the 10-minute mark.

The Game of Thrones Facebook page urged fans to type the words ‘FIRE’ and ‘DRACARYS’ in order to help melt the ice – which was being attacked by flamethrowers on screen.

Eventually, a return date of 16 July 2017 was unveiled in the ice to the audience, but not before all of those viewers had questioned their existence. I mean, HBO could have just told us the date through a simple teaser trailer, or at least have made ice ‘melt’ quicker.