The world's most popular show is again its most pirated show, beating The Walking Dead and Rick and Morty to the dubious honour.

The seventh season was the most-viewed to date on HBO, a tremendous success although one that was marred slightly by hacks and leaks ahead of and during the season.

According to TorrentFreak, the highest number of people sharing an episode across a number of torrents at one time on BitTorrent was 400,00, the peaking coming after the finale was broadcast.

The Walking Dead came in second in terms of torrents, followed by newcomer Rick and Morty, which has tech-savvy fans many of whom may not have had access to carrier Adult Swim.

Game of Thrones won't top the list for a seventh year running in 2018 as the finale season isn't expected until the spring of 2019.