Having the most pirated show of the year isn’t exactly an honor any TV producer would wish upon itself, but it’s a fact of life in today’s Internet-laden world. Either because they can’t watch the show any other way or they just don’t want to pay for it, TV shows are always being pirated. The only question now is which shows are the most pirated.
TorrentFreak released the numbers today showing the most pirated television series of the last year compared to the actual number of viewers who caught the show on television. The results are none too surprising as television series on premium cable channels are by the far the most popular among pirates.
Game of Thrones, HBO’s celebrated adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s series of fantasy novels, was the number one most pirated television show this year with over 4.2 million downloads. The show garnered almost just as many viewers via its legitimate channel over the year as well. Another premium cable series, Dexter, came in second with 3.85 million downloads. The number actually surpassed the number of legitimate viewers which came in at only 2.75 million.
The rest of the top 10 is as follows:
For the majority of these television series, the number of legitimate watchers far outweigh that of those who pirate the shows. Even then, the piracy numbers would go down if people had more legal options to watch their favorite shows. In particular, Game of Thrones would see its piracy numbers drop if HBO offered more legitimate ways to enjoy its content beyond having a premium cable subscription.