‘Game of Thrones’ season 4 approved after season 3 debut has record ratings and record piracy
Tuesday’s television news included HBO’s announcement that it’s renewing Game of Thrones for a fourth season. The series, adapted from George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novels, is a massive hit for HBO with the season three premiere having a massive debut.
The press release from HBO cites the Season 3 debut on Sunday as further proof of the series’ appeal. (more below)
From the release:
According to early data, GAME OF THRONES’ season three premiere March 31 on HBO topped the series’ highs, with record viewership for both the 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT) airing and gross audience across the three plays. At 9:00 p.m., it averaged 4.4 million viewers, outperforming (+4%) the previous high of 4.2 million viewers from last season’s finale. GAMES OF THRONES improved 13% in comparison to last season’s premiere of 3.9 million viewers. Across the three plays for the night, 6.7 million viewers tuned in, surpassing last season’s debut night of 6.3 million viewers by 7%. Last season, GAME OF THRONES had an average gross audience (HBO linear plays + HBO On Demand/HBO GO + DVR) of 11.6 million viewers.
Although, as The Wrap reports, not every viewer of “Game of Thrones” is being counted by HBO subscriber data. The Season 3 premiere was, The Wrap says, a record-breaker for pirated viewing. From the story:
(The Season 3 premiere) banked the largest bittorrent swarm, which counts each user who’s sharing some or all of an episode at one time in some way or another – with more than 320,000 users, according to torrentfreak.com.
That’s more than double the previous record holder for biggest swarm: the Season 3 premiere of NBC’s “Heroes” at 144,663 users.
And according to the site, which documents this online form of piracy in which users buck the law by sharing parts or all of a movie or TV episode, “GOT’s” third season premiere has now exceeded more than a million downloads.
