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Game of Thrones Last Watch documentary: How to watch and how to stream HBO without cable

Our watch has ended and now it's time to look back.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
Matt Elliott
3 min read
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After 8 years and 73 episodes, we finally arrived at the end of Game of Thrones, exhausted and defeated. There was disappointment, memes, rage and fire. There was joy. When it was all said and done... we had a lot of thoughts.

Although the show is over, there's still one more week of Thrones content to inject into our Song of Ice and Fire-hungry eyeballs. "The Last Watch" goes behind the scenes on the final season and airs in the Game of Thrones slot on HBO tonight. If you're playing catch up, you can watch the super sweet trailer here

If you're keen to see what happened off camera to bring us the final six episodes, you'll need a way to watch  HBO . Thankfully there are plenty of easy ways to subscribe, even if you don't have cable, starting with HBO Now and HBO Go. Note that CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the services featured on this page.

Online HBO options compared

ServiceStarting monthly price (US)What you get
HBO Now/HBO Go $15 at HBOLive and on-demand HBO content. "Free" for existing HBO cable/satellite subscribers.
Hulu $21 at Hulu (or $15 for existing Hulu subscribers)HBO plus a huge library of on-demand content from over 30 broadcast and cable channels
Amazon $25* at Amazon (or $15 for existing Prime subscribers)HBO plus Amazon Prime video library
PlayStation Vue $15 at PS VueJust HBO, but larger live TV package available for more
DirecTV Now $50 at DirecTVHBO plus dozens of live TV channels

*$25 monthly = 1/12 of annual $120 Amazon Prime fee plus $15 per month for HBO

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Game of Thrones season 8 schedule

This last season was composed of six supersize episodes. The premiere had the shortest runtime of the season at 54 minutes. Episode 2 was 58 minutes, and the final four are each roughly 80 minutes. It will all be over -- sniff -- on Sunday, May 19.

Plan to clear out Sunday evening at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central) in the US for The Last Watch of Game of Thrones

Watch this: Game of Thrones season 8 finale: Our watch has ended

HBO's main two streaming options

If you're already a subscriber to HBO as part of a cable or satellite TV package, you get HBO Go for free. It lets you stream Game of Thrones along with the rest of HBO's shows on supported phones, tablets, connected TVs and gaming consoles. Not only can you watch all seven past seasons of GoT with HBO Go, but you can livestream the new episodes as they air on HBO.

As opposed to the free streaming add-on mentioned above, HBO Now is a standalone subscription to HBO -- no cable or satellite TV subscription required. 

It costs $15 a month and lets you watch HBO via the HBO Now app or in a browser at HBONow.com. The HBO Now app is available on a number of devices, including mobile devices, smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku. As with HBO Go, you can steam the new episodes live on Sunday nights, the same time that they air on HBO.

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Add HBO to a streaming service

You can add HBO to four of the TV streaming services below for an additional monthly charge. If you're a GoT fan and also a subscriber to Sling TV or YouTube TV, then I'm sorry to report that you're out of luck: neither service offers HBO. Here are four that do.

HBO is a $15-a-month add-on to any Hulu plan, which start at $5.99 a month. So, your minimum Hulu plus HBO buy-in is about $21 a month. Unfortunately, the $10 Hulu plus Spotify offer is not currently eligible to add HBO (or any other step-up Hulu plan). 

Prime members can add HBO for $15 a month. A Prime membership costs $119 a year.

PlayStation Vue's priciest $80-a-month Ultra plan includes HBO (and Showtime), but you can also purchase HBO as a standalone channel for $15 a month -- no other plan is needed.

DirecTV Now now includes HBO, but upped its price from $40 to $50 a month. It also dropped a number of other channels in the process, making it a bad streaming deal, even for GoT fans.

Game of Thrones in the UK, Australia and elsewhere

Game of Thrones, according to HBO, airs in all but four countries around the world -- but not necessarily on HBO itself. In the UK, for example, HBO shows are on Sky Atlantic and Sky's online services Sky Go and Now TV. In Australia, Game of Thrones airs on TV and online on Foxtel. In both countries the show airs at the same time as in the US (i.e., early Monday), and is repeated on Monday night.

And for the record, HBO restricts the use of VPNs used to stream any of the above services from outside the US.

From Chowhound: How to make the food you see in Game of Thrones

See all the Game of Thrones season 8 photos

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Originally published March 5 and regularly updated as episodes air.