How to watch Game of Thrones: Stream HBO’s biggest hit in the UK, US and further afield
The definitive TV show of the 2010s, you can now stream all eight seasons of Game of Thrones from anywhere in the world
Widely regarded as one of the best TV shows ever made – and certainly one of the most popular – HBO’s Game of Thrones is a series that probably needs no introduction. However, with things wrapping up back in 2019, after nine years, eight seasons and 73 episodes, there may be a few of you out there who are out of the loop by now. So, in short, Game of Thrones is an epic fantasy saga, based on George R. R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, featuring dragons, large-scale battles and enough political backstabbing to make Julius Caesar raise an eyebrow.
UK viewers in the mood for swordplay and court intrigue will need a NOW Entertainment Membership or a Sky TV subscription to journey to Westeros, with NOW and the Sky Go app being the only places to stream all eight seasons. Those of you Stateside have it easy, with every episode of Game of Thrones currently available to stream on HBO Max. If you’re currently out of the country – for business, pleasure or leisure – and find that geo-blocking restrictions are preventing you from streaming Game of Thrones on any of these platforms, a good VPN service, such as ExpressVPN or NordVPN, should be able to help you get around this pesky problem.
Viewers looking for a fresh story in the same setting should also check out our how-to-watch guide for House of the Dragon, a more recently released prequel series which follows the dramatic fall of House Targaryen, some two hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones.
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What is Game of Thrones about?
Set on the fictional continent of Westeros, a fantasy-medieval style world, Game of Thrones features multiple interrelated plot threads and a large cast of characters. The show chiefly follows the Stark family, honorbound wardens of the northern kingdom, as they navigate the tumultuous events of the series – the most central of these being a war of succession for the Iron Throne, the seat of power in Westeros. As the show develops, old magic awakens on the eastern continent of Essos, signalling the reemergence of dragons and the rise of a powerful new claimant to the throne, and dark forces begin to stir beyond the gargantuan ice wall that was built to protect Westeros from an ancient evil.
The aforementioned large cast of characters are played by an impressive troupe of veteran actors and talented newcomers, many of whom are now famous off the back of their performances on the show. Notable names include Sean Bean (Goldeneye, The Lord of the Rings), Charles Dance (The Imitation Game, The Crown), Emilia Clarke (Terminator: Genisys, Last Christmas), Kit Harrington (Eternals, Pompeii), Sophie Turner (The Staircase, Dark Phoenix), Peter Dinklage (Three Billboards…, Cyrano), Jason Momoa (Aquaman, Dune), Lena Headey (300, The Purge) and many more. Over the course of its nine year run the show picked up hundreds of awards, including 59 Primetime Emmys, three Hugo Awards, an acting Golden Globe for Peter Dinklage, while also consistently being one of the most watched and talked about shows on television.
How to watch Game of Thrones in the UK: NOW Entertainment and Sky Go
If you are currently, or are planning on becoming, a Sky TV customer, you can watch all eight seasons of Game of Thrones – as well as other hit movies and TV series, such as Dune and Succession – on the Sky Go app. Sky TV deals start at £26, with the most basic bundles including Sky TV and Netflix as standard.
If taking on TV subscriptions seems a little involved, Sky service NOW offers a range of reasonably priced plans for simple streaming. A NOW Entertainment Membership will give access to hundreds of top TV dramas, including Euphoria, The Sopranos and newly released Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, as well as Game of Thrones itself, for only £9.99/mth after a seven-day free trial.
How to watch Game of Thrones in the US: HBO Max
Game of Thrones originally aired on HBO, so it’s no great surprise to see it finally available on the channel’s flagship streaming service, HBO Max. Subscribing to HBO Max will give you access to an array of classic HBO shows, high quality Max Originals and other movies and TV, including The Wire, Hacks, The Batman, Silicon Valley, The White Lotus, The Flight Attendant and more.
HBO Max’s standard prices for ad-supported and ad-free plans are $9.99/mth and $14.99/mth, with yearly subscriptions coming in at $99.99/yr and $150/yr respectively. However, until 30 October 2022, Max is offering a 30% discount on yearly plans, so you can snap up a year of HBO Max for just $69.99/yr ad-supported, or $105/yr ad-free.
How to watch Game of Thrones anywhere in the world: A good quality VPN
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a privacy tool whose built-in features can also help you access geo-blocked content. If you’re likely to find yourself outside the UK or US anytime soon – on a vacation, work trip or family visit – and still want to be able access region-locked streaming content on NOW or HBO Max, then a VPN will do just the trick.
If you have no idea what a VPN is, our full-length VPN guide will give you an in-depth explanation. But to give a more succinct description, a VPN is a service which allows you to browse the web privately, without tracking or recording from corporations, the government, your ISP, or cyber malefactors such as scammers and hackers. A VPN does this by encrypting your traffic and rerouting it through several private servers located around the globe. This ability to connect to, and surf from, servers in different locales, is known as ‘location spoofing.’ It’s through this feature that you could, for example, connect to a US-based server from a beach in France and stream the full content libraries of US or UK streaming services like Hulu, Prime Video US, Peacock, or HBO Max and NOW.
As an increasingly popular service, there are new VPNs launching weekly, though not all of them are safe, reliable or good-value. To save you time, we’ve cut to the chaff and picked out our two favourites just below.
ExpressVPN is a super fast and secure VPN, operating an independently audited no-logs policy to prove that it doesn’t store any user data, and being based in the British Virgin Islands, beyond the remit of UK, US or EU government interference. When tested, it reliably allowed us to spoof our location and provided top speeds for streaming and downloads – even allowing us to stream multiple 4K videos from US servers without missing a beat. Offering 24/7 customer support, a money back guarantee, and three free months to Expert Reviews readers who sign up via the link below, ExpressVPN is a service that’s hard to beat. For more information check out our full-length ExpressVPN review and our full Best VPN round-up
Also very well liked around these parts, NordVPN received five stars and a Best Buy award in our full NordVPN review, and was named our outright favourite in our Best VPN list. Employing an audited no-log policy and operating out of Panama, NordVPN also has strong security credentials, with speedy streaming, browsing and download speeds to match. Users can choose from nearly 5,500 servers across 60 countries as they connect freely from up to six devices. NordVPN also promises 24/7 customer support, a 30-day money back guarantee, and is reasonably priced, with new users able to save massively by signing up for a three-year plan.
