This time of the year marks the arrival of the immensely popular television show, Game of Thrones. The fantasy epic based on George R. R. Martin’s books has taken the world by storm ever since it first appeared on television in 2011. The show has broken multiple television records and has gained a large cult-following. It is clear that the show is here to stay and will only get more popular as time goes on.
The fifth season of Game of Thrones’ premiered on April 12th of this year with the episode, “The Wars to Come,” which was watched by a staggering eight million viewers in the United States alone. This breaks the show’s previous record from last season, which was was watched by 6.84 million viewers: a 17% increase in views. This growth in popularity mirrors shows like, “The Walking Dead,” which also broke their previous records this year. The pilot of the TV show, which premiered in 2011, only attracted around 2.2 million views. It is clear that Game of Thrones is attracting a mass of attention, and that it is on its way to beating HBO’s record-breaking 11 million viewers watching The Sopranos finale.
The fifth season was welcomed with praise and hype, but also with some controversy. Before season five even premiered, the first four episodes were leaked onto torrent sites and have since been downloaded and watched thousands of times. Game of Thrones is known to be one of the most pirated television shows of all time. The leak happened at an unfortunate time for HBO, due to the recently introduced streaming service HBO Go. HBO was hoping that the fifth season of Game of Thrones would be the flagship series that would carry the streaming service. The leaks have also sparked debate between fans on whether to watch the leaked episodes or to wait until they are released weekly. Many fans are not willing to face the risk of downloading or watching the leaked episodes, which include malware and poor quality video. We will just have to wait and see what consequences the leaks will bring, especially on HBO Go.
After asking around, it is safe to say that Game of Thrones has a large fanbase at Wilmington Friends School. Peter Durgin ’17 states, “I really like the direction season five is heading in; I cant wait to see what my favorite character Tyrion does when he meets up with Danny!” Even those who aren’t watching Game of Thrones have made plans to begin watching as soon as possible. Ted Ganter ’17 comments, “I’ve seen a couple of Game of Thrones episodes, and it looks sick, especially the dragons. Game of Thrones seems to be appealing to a lot of students at Wilmington Friends School.”
Game of Thrones has undoubtedly become a worldwide phenomenon attracting large swarms of fans. The increasing viewer ratings of each episode do not show any signs of slowing down. Moreover, the pirating and illegal downloading of the show appears to be increasing its popularity, but at the same hindering the progress of the new streaming service HBO Go. Only time will tell what the future of Game of Thrones has in store for viewers.