NEW YORK • Dragons, sex, violence and power struggles reign.
Proof came with the seventh and latest season of hit television series Game Of Thrones, which was pirated more than a record one billion times.
According to a Variety report, which cited figures from anti-piracy firm Muso, the majority of the pirated-viewing instances were done via illegal streaming (84.55 per cent), while the rest were made up of torrents (9.12 per cent) and downloads (5.59 per cent).
Legally, the seven-part season saw record ratings, with the finale drawing 16.5 million viewers in the United States, making it the most-watched episode in the series' history.
Illegally, however, the finale was downloaded or streamed more than 120 million times within the first 72 hours of its release.
Game Of Thrones, which is based on George R. R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire books, is a fantasy epic drama.
The HBO TV series has become a huge hit year on year and regularly tops the list of most-pirated television shows.
