Game of Thrones
Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister in "Game of Thrones." Facebook/Game of Thrones

Australians have once again topped the “Game of Thrones” piracy list. The season six premiere of the hit HBO show was downloaded over a million times via BitTorrent after it aired on Sunday night in the US, and Australia led the piracy.

According to the data gathered by Torrent Freak, more than 200,000 are actively sharing the episode “The Red Woman” on BitTorrent. The season six premiere was downloaded by over a million people 12 hours after it was aired.

Australia makes up 12.5 percent of all downloads, an increase of 1 percent since 2014. This is followed by India at 9.7 percent, the US at 8.5 percent and the UK at 6.9 percent. The Philippines, Canada, the Netherlands, Greece, South Africa and Saudi Arabia complete the top 10.

The data, however, was taken throughout a 12-hour period, and is therefore affected by the time differences in each country.

Foxtel is the only legal way for Australians to watch the show in the country. The pay TV operator has exclusive rights to the show’s digital rights. Perhaps in anticipation of losing customers to piracy, Foxtel has slashed its streaming rates by $15 for the next three months.

The discount is available only to new customers, those who will reactivate their accounts and those who are opting for the Premium Movies & Drama package.

Pirates aren’t Foxtel’s only enemy. The News Corporation and Telstra-formed company also has to contend with geo-dodgers. There are an unidentified number of Australians who access the US Netflix by bypassing its geo-blocked library through virtual private networks. This is despite Netflix’s efforts to block non-US subscribers.

In February, it was reported that PayPal has also joined Netflix’s fight against geo-dodgers by severing its payment processing agreement with VPNs. UnoTelly from Canada informed its customers that Paypal severed its payment processing agreement after the online payment firm accused it of violating its policy.

Read more: PayPal joins Netflix’s fight against geo-dodgers

RELATED STORIES