Game of Thrones season 7 episode 6 leaks thanks to international HBO affiliates

While there are many characters within the Game of Thrones universe that are forced to fend off the White Walkers, HBO seems to have their own rival right now: Episode leaks. Sometimes, they come in the form of hackers infiltrating their system. This time around it just seems to be the end result of a foreign broadcaster accidentally making the episode available before the air date.

Today, this happened via two HBO international affiliates, who accidentally posted the upcoming episode On-Demand for a brief period of time. This was of course enough time for illegal torrents and other websites to pick the episode up — to use a metaphor, the toothpaste is now very much out of the tube at this point and can’t be put back in.

In a statement confirming this leak, HBO said the following:

“We have learned that the upcoming episode of Game of Thrones was accidentally posted for a brief time on the HBO Nordic and HBO España platforms … The error appears to have originated with a third party vendor and the episode was removed as soon as it was recognized. This is not connected to the recent cyber incident at HBO in the U.S.”

How big of a deal is this?

While leaks do make splashy headlines, we don’t actually think that they make an enormous impact on the overall ratings for HBO. Just remember for a moment here that “Spoils of War” (the fourth episode of this season), leaked online, but still ended up becoming the most-watched episode of the show ever in live+same-day ratings. This record was shattered by the episode “Eastwatch” this past Sunday. We don’t foresee there being any reason at all for the ratings to drop off a cliff moving forward, especially when you consider for a moment that the majority of viewers aren’t wasting their time finding some illegal version of the episode to watch on their computer. This is Game of Thrones, people! This is a show you want to watch on your TV with the premier video and sound quality. That is especially true when you consider that this episode looks to be one of the most epic installments we’ve seen to date. You’ve got the Night King and the White Walker army on one side, and then Jon Snow and his ragtag band of heroes on the other. (Ever thought we’d see Jon Snow and The Hound working together? – neither did we).

This episode will set the stage for the finale, and we absolutely hope that this episode doesn’t get leaked before it airs — we don’t think that it is going to matter all that much, but we’ll see over time. The most important thing at the moment is mostly that the show continues to bring in the ratings and subscribers to HBO. That’s where they make the majority of their money at the end of the day.

What’s your take on all of this?

Be sure to share some of your thoughts and reactions now in the comments! Meanwhile, be sure to head over to the link here in the event you want some other news on the show. (Photo: HBO.)