Game of Thrones Helps HBO Now to $19 Million in Two Months

HBO spent years refusing to offer a standalone streaming video platform, at one point calling online streaming a "fad" that would pass. Parent company executives at Time Warner long felt the same way, insisting a standalone streaming option didn't make "economic sense." And while executives consistently refused to provide users what they wanted, piracy slowly but surely nibbled away at potential viewers -- with users in particular pirating the HBO hit "Game of Thrones" in record numbers.

Ultimately HBO finally saw the path forward and released HBO Now in 2015.

Two years later, and new data indicates that the iOS and Android versions of the HBO NOW mobile app have together generated $19 million in US in just the last two months, thanks in large part to users signing up to watch "Game of Thrones." The same data indicates that HBO NOW’s mobile apps should pull in well over $20 million by the end of the month.

Back in July, the start of the new season drove roughly half a million HBO NOW app downloads in Season 7’s first week, and a three times increase in revenue, notes Techcrunch. HBO notes that this season's GOT premiere was the most-watched premiere in the network’s history, and smashed HBO’s streaming records with the highest number of concurrent viewers to date across HBO NOW and HBO GO.

All in all, a pretty good haul for a service HBO and Time Warner never wanted to offer consumers in the first place.