Game of Thrones fans who did not want to wait and legally watch HBO 's hit series premiere its fifth season tonight have leaked the first four episodes online . Online pirates have unveiled nearly half of the show 's next season , which is scheduled to debut its first episode tonight . The episodes began appearing on torrent download sites on Saturday night , and are thought to have leaked from review copies given to the press . Fans of the show , which follows the ambitions and betrayals of competing noble factions and families in the fantasy world of Westeros , now face the daunting task of avoiding spoilers online as the first four episodes are released over the course of the month . Scroll down for video . Game of Thrones , which includes characters such as Emilia Clarke 's Khaleesi ( left ) and Nathalie Emmanuel 's Missandei ( right ) , was pirated before its season five debut tonight . Episodes beginning this year 's season are titled The Wars to Come , The House of Black and White , High Sparrow and The Sons of the Harpy . They had been downloaded more than 550,000 times as of early Sunday morning , Variety reported , citing the piracy-tracking company Excipio . 'Sadly , it seems the leaked four episodes of the upcoming season of Game of Thrones originated from within a group approved by HBO to receive them . We 're actively assessing how this breach occurred , ' HBO said in a statement to Daily Mail Online . The series is the most illegally downloaded program in the world . Anti-piracy company Irdeto said that episodes from Game of Thrones 's first four seasons were illegally downloaded more than seven million times between February and April 2015 . The astounding figure is a 45 per cent jump over the same period from 2014 for the show , which debuted in 2011 . The first four episodes had been downloaded more than 550,000 times as of early Sunday morning . Above , Kit Harrington 's character Jon Snow ( left ) and Peter Dinklage 's Tyrion Lannister ( right ) feature in the show . Brazil and France are the top two countries by illegal downloads of the series inspired by George R R Martin 's Song of Ice and Fire novels . They are followed by the US , Canada and the UK . Walking Dead , with 5.7million illegal downloads from February to April , was the second-most pirated show . HBO planned Sunday 's premier to air across 170 countries at the same time in an effort to combat international piracy of the show . US audiences are able to watch Game of Thrones on HBO Now , the company 's new online streaming service .
Episodes for the next four weeks released Saturday night on pirate sites . Illegal material thought to have leaked through press review copies . Show is the most pirated in the world , with Brazil the worst offender .