Yesterday, the official website for the Guinness Book of World Records announced what it would honor in its 2017 edition, and Game of Thrones earned two spots. First up, it took the title of Most Pirated Television Show. This should come as no surprise to fans, as Game of Thrones is famed for its popularity with pirates. (Sidenote: although the book is coming out in 2017, the records were earned in 2015, when Season 5 was on.)
"According to download monitoring website, TorrentFreak, from April to June 2015, there were about 14,400,000 illegal downloads of the fantasy drama per episode, marking the fourth consecutive year the show has taken the title."
The Season 5 finale actually set a new benchmark for piracy numbers back in 2015. The numbers were down slightly during Season 6, but the show is still extremely popular among, ahem, alternative TV enthusiasts.
Moving on, the show also earned the record for Most Emmy awards won by a TV series in one season. It won a whopping 12 Emmys for Season 5, breaking The West Wing’s record of nine.
Unfortunately, Game of Thrones Season 7 won’t be eligible for Emmy consideration in 2017. The upcoming year of the show won’t premiere until after the nominating period has ended, so other shows will actually have a chance to win something at next year’s ceremony.
It can still take home some statues for Season 6, though. For this past season, Game of Thrones grabbed a total of 23 Emmy nominations. Will it surpass its Season 5 record and earn 13 or more? We’ll have to wait until the September 18 ceremony to be sure, but odds are it’ll do well. In fact, if Game of Thrones wins even one more Emmy award, it will have earned more in total than any drama ever. Then it can be get into the 2018 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records for something, at least.
h/t Wet Paint