This article is a clever bit of click bait you see these days. Make a false and misleading claim about something very well known.
What makes GOT popular is a great story, casting, acting, cinematography.
The acting is very good. Coming from another cast, A list B list, doesn’t matter, the series would be cornball.
The did a great job casting, Made the careers for many actors and technical staff.
GoT is the perfect show for the modern, high-definition massive screen home theater. And it's entertaining! I'm re-watching the series from the beginning and now that I know who the main characters are and what happens to them, I'm catching so many little details that I missed the first time. It's just as enjoyable the second time around.
GoT has raised the bar as to the quality of the programming that viewers now expect to be delivered to their home theaters. In doing so, it set the standard of the medium.