'Game of Thrones' Season 8 budget reportedly reaches $15 million an episode, and honestly, it makes sense

TV production costs are at a record high, according to a new piece from Variety, and Game of Thrones leads the direwolf pack with reported costs of $15 million per episode for its final season.

That's a staggering number, especially juxtaposed with Westworld's budget of approximately $10 million per episode, or a VFX-driven drama like FX's Legion, which costs closer to $4 million. Even Thrones, back in the early days, could reportedly pull off each installment for around $6 million.

And yet, the exorbitant budget for Season 8 makes sense. Thrones has built a formidable following of fans around the world and viewing numbers beyond a network's wildest dreams, all in an era of more than 400 scripted TV shows. From merchandise to concert tours to HBO subscriptions themselves, there's no denying that the show has brought new eyes and wallets to the premium cable network, so in many ways, they've earned it.

If you're confused by how the same show could triple its costs over several years, let's break this down further. Game of Thrones films its interiors primarily in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Most of Season 1 took place in these sets, and in Malta for the warm exteriors of King's Landing and Pentos. (Daenerys spent a lot of time indoors with the Khalasar in Season 1. Handy.)

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In Season 2, filming expanded to include Croatia and Iceland, which are now staples of the show's visual ambiance and unmissable trips for Thrones fans who want to tour the locations. Season 3 added Morocco for Daenerys' scenes in Slaver's Bay, and Season 5 added Spain for the contentious Dorne storyline. By Season 3, it was normal for the show to film simultaneously in four countries at once, a feat previously unthinkable with the exception of perhaps Netflix's Sense8 (R.I.P.).

Every time the show adds a country, it adds a crew, the cost of locations, the cost of extras and their costumes, the cost of travel and stay for the main cast and crew. It's a huge operation.

Beyond that, the budget has to rise to accommodate the cast's increasing salaries, and according to jokes I read on Twitter this week, Game of Thrones has a lot of characters! Mashable did not disclose the stars' paydays following summer's HBO hack, but the actors' contracts include bonuses for awards-show wins, and Thrones has swept the Emmys the past two years it was eligible.

And let's not forget the dragon in the room: Those DRAGONS. I'm no Westerosi zoologist, nor am I a visual effects maester, but I'm pretty sure these guys cost a hell of a lot more than those Fabergé eggs from Season 1:

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A single episode of Season 7 had nearly eight times as many shots of Daenerys' dragons as all of Season 6 combined. I'm not a betting man, either, but something tells me we'll be seeing as much, if not more, dragon warfare in the show's final season, and it will take millions to make it look as real as the carnage of Season 7.

Mashable reached out to HBO, who declined to comment on budgets.