Who will die next in Game of Thrones? Data has the answer

20 Apr 2016

Daenerys Targaryen has a high likelihood of being killed off, according to this project. Image via HBO

We are well aware of the importance of data on Siliconrepublic.com.

We even recently hosted a data week on the site in recognition of its importance, as the amount of data out in the world continues to increase – including data about everybody’s favourite TV show, Game of Thrones.

Returning to our screens on Sunday, 24 April, to the excitement of its many fans, speculation is rife about who may or may not have survived to season six.

SPOILERS AHEAD: If you haven’t seen season five you should probably stop reading now.

Capitalising on the popularity of Game of Thrones, and people’s fascination with who has a chance of surviving the always-shocking show, students at the Technical University of Munich have used online data to create their project – A Song of Ice and Data – which claims to be able to predict how likely it is that a character will die in the series.

Pulling data from the books, TV series and even Twitter, the machine-learning algorithm came up with some pretty interesting information.

It showed that more than 2,000 characters have featured in the series, with GoT featuring twice as many men, who are also more likely to be of noble blood, as women. However, the better news for women is that they are more likely to see the end of the series: 43pc of male characters are dead by the end of the fifth book, compared to 21pc of women.

When it comes to who is most likely to die next, new occupant of the Iron Throne Tommen Baratheon tops the list at 97pc, according to the data, followed by Stannis Baratheon (96pc), followed by everyone’s favourite dragon mother Daenerys Targaryen (95pc).

However, in good news for those who were upset by the end of season five, the algorithm puts the chances of the beloved Jon Snow dying at just 11pc, with only Sansa Stark (3pc) less likely to turn up dead.

Check out the website for the full stats – including which character is most popular on Twitter.

Gigglebit is Siliconrepublic.com’s daily dose of the funny and fantastic in science and tech.

Brigid O Gorman is a former sub-editor of Silicon Republic.

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