Which Game of Thrones episodes were the most expensive?

The final episode of Game of Thrones is now just a few days away and fans are wondering what to expect as the journey of each character comes to an end.

The Battle for Winterfell in episode three and the siege at King’s Landing in episode five were two big-budget episodes lasting beyond the usual one-hour length of previous seasons.

HBO has increased the budget for the show each year as its popularity continues to grow, but the money isn’t split evenly and some episodes need more funding than others.

With many fans wondering how much some of the biggest episodes cost to produce, here is everything that you need to know.

Which Game of Thrones episodes were the most expensive?

HBO doesn’t fully disclose how much it spends on each episode, but we do have a rough idea of how much funding is made available for each season.

It is believed that the broadcaster spent around $90 million (£69 million) on season eight, meaning that it cost around $15 million (£11.5 million) for each of the six episodes.

The most expensive season overall was season six, which saw HBO spend around $100 million for the ten episodes, which is equal to $10 million (£7 million) for each one.

The battle scenes over the last few years are likely to have been the most expensive episodes to produce, because of the special effects needed to produce the quality that they wanted from the fights.

Producers are likely to have given The Battle of the Bastards slightly more of the season six budget, taking it to around $11m or $12m (£8-£9m), but it is still far behind the episodes in season eight.

The third episode The Battle for Winterfell is believed to have been one of the most expensive episodes that that the show has produced, with long, complex battle sequences and CGI dragon fights.

It took 11 weeks of night shoots to put the episode together, along with a large crew to support filming and help produce the special effects.

It’s possible that the episode could have cost as much as $20 million (£15.5 million) to produce, eating into the budget for the other five episodes in the season, and so far it seems that episode five The Bells was the most likely to be the next most expensive episode.