Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first of which is A Game of Thrones. The show premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011, and concluded on May 19, 2019, with 73 episodes broadcast over eight seasons.
"GoT" redirects here. For other uses, see GOT.Game of Thrones
- David Benioff
- D. B. Weiss
Ramin Djawadi
United States
English
8
73 (list of episodes)
- David Benioff
- D. B. Weiss
- George R. R. Martin
- Carolyn Strauss
- Frank Doelger
- Bernadette Caulfield
- Bryan Cogman
- Miguel Sapochnik
- David Nutter
- Mark Huffam
- Joanna Burn
- Chris Newman
- Greg Spence
- Lisa McAtackney
- Duncan Muggoch
- United Kingdom
- Croatia
- Iceland
- Spain
- Malta
- Morocco
- Canada
50–82 minutes
- HBO Entertainment
- Television 360
- Grok! Television
- Generator Entertainment
- Startling Television
- Bighead Littlehead
April 17, 2011 –
May 19, 2019
Set on the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, Game of Thrones has a large ensemble cast and follows several story arcs throughout the course of the show. The first major arc concerns the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros through a web of political conflicts among the noble families either vying to claim the throne or fighting for independence from whomever sits on it. The second major arc focuses on the last descendant of the realm's deposed ruling dynasty, who has been exiled to Essos and is plotting to return and reclaim the throne. The third follows the Night's Watch, a military order defending the realm against threats from beyond Westeros's northern border.
Game of Thrones attracted a record viewership on HBO and has a broad, active, and international fan base. Many critics and publications have named the show one of the greatest television series of all time. Critics have praised the series for its acting, complex characters, story, scope, and production values, although its frequent use of nudity and violence (including sexual violence) generated controversy. The final season received significant criticism for its reduced length and creative decisions, with many considering it a disappointing conclusion. The series received 59 Primetime Emmy Awards, the most by a drama series, including Outstanding Drama Series in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. Its other awards and nominations include three Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, a Peabody Award, and five nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama.
A prequel series, House of the Dragon, premiered on HBO in 2022. A second prequel currently in production, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is scheduled to debut in 2025.
Availability
Broadcast
Game of Thrones was broadcast by HBO in the United States and by its local subsidiaries or other pay television services in other countries, at the same time as in the US or weeks (or months) later. Broadcasters carrying Game of Thrones included Fox Showcase in Australia; HBO Canada, Super Écran, and Showcase in Canada; HBO Latin America in Latin America; Sky Television Network's SoHo and Neon in New Zealand; and Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[187][188][189][190] In India, two versions of the series were aired; Star World aired a censored version of the series on television at the same time as the US, while an uncensored version was made available for live viewing on the Hotstar app.[191]
On January 23, 2015, the last two episodes of season four were shown in 205 IMAX theaters across the United States, the first television series to be shown in this format.[192] The show earned $686,000 at the box office on its opening day[193] and $1.5 million during its opening weekend;[194] the week-long release grossed $1,896,092.[195] Before the season eight premiere, HBO screened "The Spoils of War" episode from season seven in movie theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and "Chicago".[196]
Home media and streaming
The ten episodes of the first season of Game of Thrones were released as a DVD and Blu-ray box set on March 6, 2012. The box set includes extra background and behind-the-scenes material but no deleted scenes, since nearly all the footage shot for the first season was used.[197] The box set sold over 350,000 copies in the week following its release, the largest first-week DVD sales ever for an HBO series. The series also set an HBO-series record for digital-download sales.[198] A collector's-edition box set was released in November 2012, combining the DVD and Blu-ray versions of the first season with the first episode of season two. A paperweight in the shape of a dragon egg is included in the set.[199]
DVD-Blu-ray box sets and digital downloads of the second season became available on February 19, 2013.[200] First-day sales broke HBO records, with 241,000 box sets sold and 355,000 episodes downloaded.[201] The third season was made available for purchase as a digital download on the Australian iTunes Store, parallel to the US premiere, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1 on February 18, 2014.[202][203] The fourth season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 17, 2015,[204] and the fifth season on March 15, 2016.[205] Blu-ray and DVD versions of the sixth season were released on November 15, 2016.[206] Beginning in 2016, HBO began issuing Steelbook Blu-ray sets, which include both Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and Dolby Atmos audio options.[207] In 2018, the first season was released in 4K HDR on Ultra HD Blu-ray.[208] Blu-ray and DVD versions of the seventh season were released on December 12, 2017.[209] The final season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 3, 2019. The home release also included behind-the-scenes footage and cast commentary.[210] A box set containing all eight seasons, including a cast reunion hosted by Conan O'Brien, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 3, 2019,[211] and was also released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on November 3, 2020.[212]
In August 2022, the complete series was released in 4K, Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos on HBO Max.[213]
Copyright infringement
Game of Thrones has been widely pirated, primarily outside the US.[214] According to the file-sharing news website TorrentFreak, it was the most pirated television series from 2012 to 2019 (except 2018, when no new episodes were broadcast),[215][216] and Guinness World Records named it the most-pirated television program in 2015.[217] Illegal downloads increased to about seven million in the first quarter of 2015, up 45 percent from 2014.[214] An unnamed episode was downloaded about 4.28 million times through public BitTorrent trackers in 2012, roughly equal to its number of broadcast viewers.[218][219] Piracy rates were particularly high in Australia[220] prompting the US Ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich, to issue a statement in 2013 condemning the practice there.[221] Delays in availability by non-HBO broadcasters before 2015 and the cost of subscriptions to their services have been cited as causes for the series's illegal distribution.[222] According to TorrentFreak, a subscription to a service broadcasting Game of Thrones cost up to $25 per month in the United States, up to £26 per episode in the UK and up to $52 per episode in Australia.[223]
In 2013, to combat unauthorized downloads, HBO said it intended to make its content more widely available within a week of the US premiere (including HBO Go).[224] In 2015, the fifth season was simulcast to 170 countries and to HBO Now users.[214] On April 11, the day before the season premiere, screener copies of the first four episodes of the fifth season leaked to a number of file-sharing websites.[225] Within a day of the leak, the files were downloaded over 800,000 times;[226] in one week the illegal downloads reached 32 million, with the season five premiere—"The Wars to Come"— pirated 13 million times.[227] The season five finale ("Mother's Mercy") was the most simultaneously shared file in the history of the BitTorrent file sharing protocol, with over 250,000 sharers and over 1.5 million downloads in eight hours.[228] HBO did not send screeners to the press for the sixth season to prevent the spread of unlicensed copies and spoilers.[229] Season seven was either illegally streamed or downloaded over 1 billion times, with the season averaging 14.7 billion illegal views, and the season finale garnering over 120 million illegal views within its first 72 hours.[230] According to anti-piracy company MUSO, the eighth season was illegally downloaded or viewed most in India and China.[231] Illegal viewership for the final season was double the number of legal viewers, with 55 million illegal downloads for the season eight premiere "Winterfell", compared to 17.4 million who watched on HBO platforms.[232]
Observers, including series director David Petrarca and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, said that illegal downloads did not hurt the series's prospects; it benefited from "buzz" and social commentary, and the high piracy rate did not significantly translate into lost subscriptions.[233][234] According to Polygon, HBO's relaxed attitude towards piracy and the sharing of login credentials amounted to a premium-television "free-to-play" model.[235] At a 2015 Oxford Union panel discussion, series co-creator David Benioff said that he was just glad that people watched the series; illegally downloaded episodes sometimes interested viewers enough to buy a copy, especially in countries where Game of Thrones was not televised. Series co-creator D. B. Weiss had mixed feelings, saying that the series was expensive to produce and "if it doesn't make the money back, then it ceases to exist". However, he was pleased that so many people "enjoy the show so much they can't wait to get their hands on it."[236]
