The Essential Digital Marketing Trends to Watch in 2025
By Emily SmithDec 13
Episode four of Game of Thrones Season 7, Spoils of War, has hit our screens and we have the data.
**SPOILER NOTES: There are two parts to this post. In the first, we won’t go into the details of what happened in the episode but we’ll tell you which characters were mentioned most and when spikes in mentions occur. In the second, we’ll tell you exactly what the top mentioned moments are. Big time spoilers. You’ve been warned.**
Spoils of War: Top line stats
- 31,840 mentions of the show between 9pm and 10:00pm ET (slightly more than last week, but not more than episodes one or two)
- The biggest mention spike came at 9:53pm, with 1,710 tweets in a single minute
- 55% of gender-categorized authors were female, 45% male
You can check out our social data run-downs of all of the episodes so far this season here:
The non-specific highlights
The biggest spikes in mentions occur at the end of the episode, and if you’ve seen it you’ll know why.
As the shortest episode of Game of Thrones this season, they certainly packed a lot in.
The top-mentioned characters
This week, Arya tops the most-mentioned character list.
Daenerys and Bran follow, with Jon Snow and Jaime 4th and 5th.
Arya was top-mentioned character in episode one, but Jon Snow took the title in episodes two and three.
Here come the spoilers
In order of the top five moments, here were the things that drove the most mentions during the episode. You might recognize our data from its appearance in This Is Insider this week:
5. Stark famalam back together again (9.22pm – 560 mentions)
Early on in the episode, Arya turns up at the gates of Winterfell. It’s a moment everyone’s been waiting for – if you remember, last week when Bran turned up at the gate, many hoped the mysterious guest would be Arya.
She meets with her brother and sister and while it’s a happy moment, it’s clear that lots has changed. For example, Bran now identifies as a three-eyed raven and Arya has magical face-swapping powers. Also, their parents and siblings are dead which is a bit sad.
4. Bronn fires spears at Drogon, wounding Daenerys’ top dragon (9.46pm – 590 mentions)
Stumbling around the battlefield, Bronn sees his chance to take down Daenerys’ and her dragon (more on that in a minute).
He uses the giant spear shooting machine to spear Drogon mid-flight, causing him to hurtle towards the ground. Daenerys fans were on the edge of their seats since she might be fire-proof but she probably can’t survive falling out of the sky.
3. Drogon the Dragon sets fire to everything and everyone (9.44pm – 730 mentions)
There’s a spectacular moment where Drogon emerges from the sky above the Dothraki army, all storming towards the unprepared Lannisters. It marks the first time the dragons have been used in a war setting, and if anyone doubted their talent in such an environment before they’ll now be eating their words.
It doesn’t take long for Daenerys’ biggest dragon to literally turn soldiers to ash. While many are rooting for Daenerys and Drogon, it’s a pretty disturbing scene.
2. Tyrion quietly urges Jaime to flee (9.52pm – 1,400 mentions)
Standing at the edge of the battlefield where Lannister soldiers are being mercilessly fried, Tyrion watches his brother stumbling about and heading for Daenerys and her dragon.
It’s the first time in a long time Tyrion has seen his brother and it doesn’t exactly end well…
1. Jaime sinks to the bottom of the sea (9:53pm – 1,710 mentions)
This was the shortest episode ever, and people weren’t happy to see the credits roll a whole 7 minutes before 10pm.
It’s unclear whether Jaime will survive his close encounter with Drogon that sends him plummeting into the water, but we’ll soon find out.
Want more Game of Thrones data?
Our coverage of Game of Thrones data spans years, and we have a huge archive of season and episode-specific data available throughout our website. Our engaging data visualizations will also be covering season 7 as it progresses. (Note: You may notice some subtle differences between how the visualizations look and the charts in blogs – we’re using slightly different methods of tracking character mentions).
You can also take a look at our recently released Game of Thrones infographic that we released alongside Dr. Jillian Ney. It analyzes a million Reddit posts to find the most loved, overrated and underrated characters and more.
Still want more? You can download our case study on how Brandwatch helped DDB and Sky inspire New Zealanders who had previously dismissed the show to get excited about the upcoming season.
If you’re a journalist looking to cover our data email us at [email protected] for more information