Game of Thrones has the honor once again of being the most pirated TV show in 2013, with geek shows The Walking Dead, The Big Bang Theory, and Dexter also landing in the Top Five Most Illegally Downloaded Shows on BitTorrent, according to TorrentFreak.
It’s no surprise that Game of Thrones is number one for 2013; it was also tops in 2012 (see "'Game of Thrones' Stolen the Most"). HBO owner Time Warner wears the most-pirated title as a badge of honor, believing that it’s "better than an Emmy" (see "'Game of Thrones' Piracy Record 'Better than an Emmy'").
The estimated 5.9 million downloads for a single episode of Game of Thrones is up from last year’s 4.28 million illegal downloads.
Other geek shows in the top 10 most-pirated list that are associated with games, comics, toys, and other products sold by geek culture retailers for 2013:
#3 -- The Walking Dead
#4 -- The Big Bang Theory
#5 -- Dexter
#10 – Arrow
Arrow is a new entrant to this list for 2013. Fringe and Revolution dropped off from 2012.
The most-pirated rankings are not directly proportional to the legal audience size; pay channel shows Game of Thrones, Dexter, and Homeland have higher ratios of illegal to legal viewers due to the greater legal digital availability of shows from ad-supported channels.
TorrentFreak does not include online steaming and cyberlocker downloads in their data, as there are no public sources to draw numbers from. "The total piracy numbers will therefore be significantly higher," they said.
'Arrow' Makes the List
Posted by ICv2 on December 26, 2013 @ 4:58 pm CT
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