"Game of Thrones" has emerged as one of the most popular television series. It has become a massive hit for HBO and has literally shifted the television viewing culture. Every Monday fans extensively discuss the happenings and events of the previous day episode and there are very few shows who have managed to create such a buzz in recent times.

However, as they say popularity comes with a price, "Game of Thrones" is the biggest victim of piracy and most of the viewers like to watch the online pirated version of the show.

As per Ben Kuchera of Polygon, more than 1.5 billion reportedly downloaded online version of episode "The Lion and the Rose" and more than 200,000 people shared the copy on their social media accounts. Apparently, this is one the most online shared shows in the history of media piracy, however, HBO is not bothered, rather they are happy with the fact that there content has kind of become a rage.

"There are numerous anti-theft tools we utilize and we have significantly shrunk the international distribution window for original programming to practically correspond with the US premiere," HBO said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. "Unfortunately, with popularity comes piracy. Good news is Game of Thrones continues to grow significantly and tens of millions are watching the series legally around the world."

Though HBO might be happy with the growing popularity of the show they are against piracy and they do send mails in regards to cutting out the pirated copies to the viewers.

"Basically, we've been dealing with this issue for years with HBO, literally 20, 30 years, where people have always been running wires down on the back of apartment buildings and sharing with their neighbors," Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes revealed told Business Insider in a Conference Call .

Let us know your thoughts on Game of Thrones piracy. Do you think the without subscription online viewing of "Game of Thrones" should be banned?