Game of Thrones ratings are infallible, it turns out. (Unlike Drogon the dragon, unfortunately. Too soon?) Despite the accidental leak, Sunday night's episode, titled "The Spoils of War" was the highest rated episode yet, as per Entertainment Weekly. There were 10.2 million viewers of the episode, the highest of the season and leagues above the ratings from last season. (Ratings per episode for season 6 averaged 8 million.) This season has already seen record numbers — the premiere enjoyed 10.1 million viewers, and the subsequent episodes ranged in the 9 million area.
This is good news, especially considering all the technical issues of late. Last week, hackers breached the HBO cybersecurity, stealing 1.5 terabytes of data, which is equal to over 750 hours of video. The hackers obtained unaired episodes of Game of Thrones, as well as data and information concerning the show. (In addition, they obtained episodes of Ballers, Room 104, Insecure, and Barry, a series that won't debut until 2018. It's not all about GoT.) The vagrants then launched a website where users could download this information. The hackers then demanded millions in ransom for the information.
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Unrelated to the initial hack, another breach of cybersecurity resulted in "The Spoils of War" being posted on Reddit days before the episode was set to air.
"We take this breach very seriously and have immediately initiated forensic investigations at our and the technology partner’s end to swiftly determine the cause. This is a grave issue and we are taking appropriate legal remedial action," a spokesperson for HBO distribution partner Star India told Mashable in a statement.
Despite all the legal snafus, Game of Thrones is better than ever. This recalls the time HBO CEO Richard Plepler said that he doesn't care if you share your HBO password.
"It's not that we're unmindful of it, it just has no impact on the business," he told Buzzfeed in 2014. "We're in the business of creating addicts."
Take that, hackers! Nothing can hurt the success of Game of Thrones.
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