More than 11 million HBO subscribers watched each episode of Game of Thrones in 2012, but another 3.7 to 4.2 million were able to watch the same shows without paying a cent. They were watching pirated versions of each episode that were made available by companies specializing in distributing digital content for free without paying the owners and creators of that content for using it. Television shows, music, movies, and videogames have all been plundered this way.