Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes once said that Game of Thrones being the most pirated show in the world is “better than an Emmy.” In those terms, HBO’s fantasy epic is on a Modern Family-like streak: Thrones is 2015’s top torrented show, a distinction it’s held four years in a row. This isn’t much of a surprise, considering the season premiere was downloaded 13 million times, nearly two million people torrented “Kill the Boy” in the 24 hours after it premiered, and another 10 million saw Cersei take the walk of SHAME through any means necessary. That’s a lot of pirates, and I don’t mean Salladhor Saan.
Here is the rest of the Top 10, which TorrentFreak based on the number of downloads for a single episode (although Game of Thrones would still finish No. 1 for overall downloads). Two of these things are not like the others.
1. Game of Thrones, 14.4 million
2. The Walking Dead, 6.9 million
3. The Big Bang Theory, 4.4 million
4. Arrow, 3.9 million
5. The Flash, 3.6 million
6. Mr. Robot, 3.5 million
7. Vikings, 3.3 million
8. Supergirl, 3 million
9. The Blacklist, 2.9 million
10. Suits, 2.6 million
Eight out of those ten shows makes sense. They’re split evenly between epics (Game of Thrones and Vikings), nerds and/or loners (The Big Bang Theory, all the superhero series, Mr. Robot), and The Walking Dead (The Walking Dead). Then there’s The Blacklist, which is super popular, so it gets a pass, and… Suits? That’s one question magical manila folders can’t solve.
Meanwhile, the year’s most torrented movie isn’t even from 2015.
1. 46,762,310 Interstellar (2014)
2. 44,794,877 Furious 7 (2015)
3. 41,594,159 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
4. 36,881,763 Jurassic World (2015)
5. 36,443,244 Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
6. 33,953,737 American Sniper (2014)
7. 32,126,827 Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
8. 31,574,872 The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
9. 31,001,480 Terminator: Genisys (2015)
10. 30,922,987 The Secret Service (2014)
If you count the number of times a certain scene was watched and re-watched, Fifty Shades of Grey would be somewhere in the billions. Expect The Martian to top this chart next year. Pirates think we’ve spent so much money saving Matt Damon — why should they have to pay another $10 for a movie ticket?
(Via TorrentFreak and Variety)
