The first Game of Thrones episode of series eight was pirated nearly 55m times
- Thursday, April 18th, 2019
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The first episode of Game of Thrones was pirated nearly 55m times within the first 24 hours of its premiere on HBO as streaming from India, China and the US meant illegal views easily eclipsed legal views.
HBO said the official viewing figures for ‘Winterfell’ was 17.4m, while anti-piracy and analytics firm Muso, which has tracked Game of Thrones activity across piracy networks over the last few months said the first seven seasons were among the top 25 most pirated TV shows around the world.
Illegal views in India hit 9.4m, China was 5.1m, the US was 3.9m and the UK was 2.4m. 
Although the reported figures are likely to frustrate TV executives, they could also be seen as an opportunity for Western media to invest more in India and China, given the interest from audiences.
Netflix recently piloted a $4 mobile plan for Netflix smartphone users as it aims to win its next 100m subscribers while Amazon Prime video has been active in the country for some time.
