GAME OF THRONES Season 5 Premiere Draws Record 8 Million Viewers

After months of anticipation, the fifth season of GAME OF THRONES aired on HBO at 9pm CET on April 12th. The telecasted premiere live episode drew in a record eight million viewers, in testament to the fact that the program is the most-watched series ever created by HBO. This figures does not include people who watched the premiere via on demand (which includes HBO's streaming service, HBO Now) or recording.

These are also impressive viewing figures despite the fact that the first four episodes of season 5 leaked online prior to the premiere screening.

Pirating is a huge issue for HBO. The piracy experts Irdeto have found that fans illegally downloaded the first four series of GAME OF THRONES over seven million times from February 5 to April 6. This is 45% more than download numbers for the same period last year. It is likely that some will continue to watch the series through such means.

The popularity of the premiere episode of season 5 comes after the season 4 finale for GAME OF THRONES pulled in 19 million cumulative viewers.

Only the episode titles for the first seven episodes are known. They are as follows:
The Wars to Come
The House of Black and White
High Sparrow
The Sons of the Harpy
Kill the Boy
Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken
The Gift

To recap the first episode, The Wars to Come begins with a flashback to the 12-year-old Cersei, when she asks a witch to predict her future. The witch replies that all three of her children will sit on the throne. Back in the present day, while Jamie and Cersei mourn the death of Tywin Lannister, Varys is trying to smuggle Tyrion, who killed his father in the season 4 finale, as far from the reach of Cersei as possible.

Daenerys is also struggling with her own problems in season 5 episode 1. In the episode she grapples with keeping her KINGDOM from descending into factionalism after her decision to free the Unsullied comes under fire.

Things are not much more cheerful at the wall; in this episode, Mance Rayder, who is the king of the wildlings, refuses to join hands with Stannis Baratheon. As a consequence Baratheon sentences him to being burned alive. However, John Snow puts an end to the defiant man's misery by killing him with a bow and ARROW as he screams with pain and the flames build around him.

The next HBO live stream will air at 9pm CET time on April 19. The rest of the episodes will continue to air and stream at this same time every week until the season finale, which is scheduled for June 21 2015.

GAME OF THRONES Season 5 , please visit http://www.orareport.com

Photo courtesy of HBO

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