'Game of Thrones' Season 7 Has Been Pirated More Than 1 Billion Times

09/09/2017 12:56 pm EDT

HBO's series Game of Thrones is known to be one of the most pirated dramas on television, but a new report reveals its piracy is unprecedented.

Variety reports that the show's stunning seventh season has been illegally streamed or downloaded more than one billion times.

The statistics come from a study from anti-piracy firm, MUSO, who track piracy within the first 72 hours of premiere broadcast. During that time period, the series' season premiere was illegally downloaded and streamed more than 90 million times, while the finale was more than 120 million times.

Andy Chatterly, co-founder and CEO of MUSO says the statistics regarding Game of Thrones point to the series being one of the biggest global entertainment phenomena of today.

"Activity across piracy networks has been totally unprecedented," Chatterly said. "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."

He adds that in addition to the scale of piracy when it comes to popular shows, such numbers validate that unlicensed streaming can be a far more significant type of piracy than torrent downloads.

"At MUSO, we look at all types of piracy, not just torrents," he said. "And that is why these numbers have been illuminated."

The report outlines that of the 1.03 billion total instances of piracy, 84.66 percent were streams, 9.12 percent were torrents, and 5.59 percent were downloaded.

Photo credit: HBO

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