The much awaited final episode of the Game of Thrones (GoT) series aired this morning at 4 am East African Time on HBO channel. This brought season 8 to a close with only 6 episodes to its name.
GoT, which is HBO’s current most watched series has acquired a huge following all over the world since it began in 2011 and the numbers have continued to grow over the years. Here are ways that the series has set records that have never been set before in the world of cinematography.
- Extremely high ratings
According to HBO, season 8 has had an average of 43 million views resulting it to be the most watched season after its season 7 which garnered an average of 33 million views.
2. Petition signed to remake season 8
Many fans have not been happy with the plot of the final season of GoT. After the second last episode was aired last week, about 750, 000 GoT fans have gone ahead to sign a petition asking for a remake of the entire season 8. “Remake Game of Thrones season eight with competent writers” demands a petition posted to Change.org. Another series that has been petitioned by fans before is Star Wars.
3. First series to have a blood drive
On March 14, 2019, the creators of GoT launched a blood drive all over the world to ask the fans of GoT to ‘bleed for the throne’. “Westeros has bled #ForTheThrone. Now it’s your turn. Donate today and save lives,” HBO posted on their website.
4. Humongous budget
Season 8 of GoT has been classified as the most expensive season ever produced on TV. Every episode cost about Sh1.5 billion and hence the whole season cost about Sh9.1 billion.
5. Most pirated series
About 1 billion people watched the pirated version of GoT season 7 through illegal downloads. Four episodes of GoT were leaked before they were broadcast. To overcome those problems, the producers of the show, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, created several versions of the final episode. They also prohibited drones from flying over their shoots.
6. One of the highest number of awards
GoT has won 47 Emmy Awards out of 128 nominations.
7. One of the longest productions
According to an Instagram post by the assistant director of GoT, Jonathan Quinlan, it took 55 nights to shoot the final season which is double what it took to film the Battle Of The Bastards. The last season of GoT has also had one of the longest episodes which were ranging between 54mins and 82mins.