A History of TV Episode Leaks: House of the Dragon, Mad Men, and More (2024)

Even in the age of digital piracy and torrent sites, major television leaks aren’t terribly common. However, when they do happen, they can be harder to contain, especially in a time where people are able to post entire movies on X (formerly Twitter).

As hard as studios try to keep their intellectual property under wraps, sometimes there are still things that slip through the cracks. Whether released by hackers, network error, or some other unfortunate circ*mstance, here are some of the most disruptive TV episode leaks to happen in recent history.

House of the Dragon

Season 1 and 2 Finale

If I had a nickel for every House of the Dragon season finale that’s been leaked I’d only have two nickels, but it’s still wild that it’s happened twice. The finale for season 1 was reportedly leaked by one of HBO’s distribution partners in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa, ending up on illegal torrent sites before the episode was set to premiere. Clips even began to circulate on TikTok before the episode even aired.

Similarly, the season 2 finale was found on X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok the week before it aired after another leak from a third party international distributor. Episode 8 was originally not going to be made available to the press in early screeners, just as episode 10 of season 1 wasn’t, but after the leak, HBO changed course and granted press access.

Game of Thrones

Episodes of Seasons 5, 7, 8

Game of Thrones’ final seasons were so plagued by episode leaks that eventually HBO ceased to offer advanced screeners to the press. Season 5 had the first four episodes leaked onto torrent sites, reportedly copied from DVDs sent out to the press, though that wasn’t confirmed.

Season 7 had a couple of episodes leak due to both hackers and third party distributor error. The fourth episode of the season was leaked after a data breach occurred at Star India, HBO’s distributor for the country. Episode 6 leaked after it was accidentally posted early to HBO Nordic and HBO España platforms. Though unrelated to the Star India breach and the larger hack that HBO suffered in the U.S., the episode still made the rounds on Reddit, YouTube, and torrent sites before HBO realized their error and removed it.

Season 8 perhaps had the most consequential leaks of all Game of Thrones seasons. The first two episodes were accidentally posted online in full by DirecTV and Prime Video Germany, respectively, for a brief time, while episodes 3 and 4 had still pictures and clips from the episodes leak online, revealing the death of a major character.

Arcane

Unfinished Episodes from Season 2

A victim of Netflix’s most recent data breach, the second season of Arcane had unfinished episodes released online before its November premiere. This hack targeted one of Netflix’s post-production partners, which means that all of the work released is still in-progress and shouldn’t be considered the final cut by any means.

Netflix Anime/Crunchyroll

Various Projects

In addition to Arcane, episodes of Terminator Zero, Dandadan, Ranma ½ and other Netflix anime series have been released by the same group of hackers. Sony’s Crunchyroll anime studio was also a victim of the same attack, with hackers releasing the premiere episode of isekai anime Re: Zero.

Heartstopper

Unfinished Episodes from Season 3

After hackers stole data from Netflix, episodes from Heartstopper’s third season have been released online ahead of the series’ October premiere. As with Arcane, these episodes are still unfinished and have work to be done before being officially released.

Stranger Things (Potentially)

Unfinished Episodes from Season 5

As part of Netflix’s most recent data breach, hackers have threatened to release the first three episodes of Stranger Things 5. Though it’s unlikely that enough footage has been cut together to resemble three full episodes, considering that the season is still in production, it’s still a threat that’s leaving fans on edge.

Orange is the New Black

All of season 5

But these recent hacks aren’t the first time that Netflix has had content stolen and released by hackers. Back in 2017, the fifth season of Orange is the New Black was leaked in full online after Netflix refused to pay the ransom demanded by the hacker known as The Dark Overlord. This leak was part of a bigger network-spanning attack that also targeted FOX and ABC.

House of Cards

Season 3

This Netflix leak thankfully wasn’t due to hackers, but rather a technical error on the streamer’s part. Back in 2015, the third season of House of Cards was accidentally released on Netflix in full a whole two weeks ahead of its premiere. It was eventually caught, and the episodes taken back down until the scheduled premiere, but not before people noticed.

Mad Men

Season 3 Episode 2

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Brynna Arens (she/her) is a freelance writer who studies movies, TV, and pop culture through an intersectional feminist lens. She'll watch almost anything tbh, but it's…