Watching Game of Thrones

How Audiences Engage with Dark Television
How did audiences across the world engage with the blockbuster TV series Game of Thrones? This book presents the findings of a major research project that gathered the responses of more than 10,000 people. Its findings challenge many conventional approaches and open up new ways of thinking about the value of contemporary ‘fantasy’.
Game of Thrones was an international sensation, and has been looked at from many different angles. But to date there has been little research into its audiences: who they were, how they engaged with and responded to it. This book presents the findings of a major international research project that garnered more than 10,000 responses to an innovative 'qualiquantitative' questionnaire. Among its findings are: a new way of understanding the place and role of favourite characters in audiences’ responses; new insights into the role of fantasy in encouraging thinking about our own world; and an account of two combined emotions – relish and anguish – which structure audiences’ reactions to controversial elements in the series.