New Game of Thrones episode comes online early – update

The fourth episode of season seven of Game of Thrones has been released online early via Google Drive storage. The episode’s early release follows an HBO hack, in which criminals stole 1.5TB of data.

The leaked GoT episode titled “The Spoils of War” is authentic and contains the watermark “for internal viewing only,” according to The Verge. That seems to indicate that it is indeed a file that was part of the 1.5TB of stolen data. The break-in at HBO was announced this week.

Earlier this week, only Game of Thrones script summaries were released. Episodes of other series have already come online, such as Room 104 and Ballers. The now released episode of Game of Thrones is of mediocre quality. It is still unclear whether more material from the series will come out early due to the hack.

In the past, episodes of GoT have appeared online early through screeners that HBO showed to the press. According to Torrentfreak, Game of Thrones is the most popular series on piracy networks in years.

Update, Saturday: The episode in question did not appear online due to a hack, but due to an error by distribution partner Star India. The company confirmed this to The Verge.