HBO Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones is a popular series for downloads, but unfortunately, most of the download options are illegal. You can still stream the episode through a variety of legal means and watch on demand later if you’re not free to watch the episode live. But if you’re wanting to download Game of Thrones, the legal option of iTunes is not available in most countries.
Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 1 was illegally downloaded 54 million times in the first 24 hours, Mashable shared. This is compared to 17.4 million who watched live. It’s possible that many of these downloads were due to the fact that HBO GO and HBO NOW had serious server issues during the premiere. Hopefully that won’t be the case again this week. Most of the downloads were from India, China, and the United States.
If you want to download Game of Thrones legally, your best option is iTunes, but that option isn’t available in the United States. You can also watch on Hulu or Amazon Prime, but these are streaming options, not downloads. Amazon Prime allows some shows to be downloaded on mobile devices through the Amazon Prime Video app, but Game of Thrones is not one of those.
In the United States, iTunes does not have Game of Thrones Season 8 even listed yet, although all previous seasons are available for purchase. You can, however, find official Game of Thrones podcasts for Season 8, including an hour-long podcast on iTunes that discusses the first episode. But the episodes themselves for Season 8 aren’t available for viewing. In many countries including the U.S., iTunes doesn’t release new Game of Thrones episodes until after the season has ended.
However, it does appear that if you are in Denmark, you can watch new Game of Thrones Season 8 episodes on iTunes.
itunesGame of Thrones iTunes
The Denmark iTunes currently lists the entire season of Game of Thrones Season 8 available for prepurchase for 19.99, and all 53 minutes of Winterfell, Episode 1, is on the service. It’s unclear how quickly the episode was added, but if you’re in Denmark then it looks like you have the option of watching Game of Thrones on iTunes.
There are many streaming options available for Game of Thrones, even if they aren’t downloads. You can stream live or later with HBO NOW if you don’t have an HBO cable package, on Hulu with an HBO add-on, or on Amazon Prime with an HBO add-on. These are all great options for watching new Game of Thrones episodes legally, even if you don’t have a cable subscription. So don’t worry if GoT downloads aren’t available legally. There are so many other options for watching the show that you really won’t miss them at all.