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'Game of Thrones' is the most pirated show of the year

Posted at 5:03 PM, Dec 26, 2014
and last updated 2014-12-26 17:24:48-05

By what right does the wolf judge the lion?

“Game of Thrones” won the golden crown of most pirated television show for the third straight year,according to Torrentfreak, which tracks the not-so-legal downloads.

The brutal fantasy show’s season finale drew more than 8 million downloads on the pirate client BitTorrent. That’s more than the 7 million who watched the show on TV.

The Walking Dead stumbled, dragged and gargled its way to second place with 4.8 million downloads against 17 million viewers.

The Big Bang Theory seems to have the most honest viewers, with 18 million watching legally compared to 3.9 million pirates.

While pirating movies and TV shows isn’t slowing down, the websites themselves are under siege. One of the most popular pirate sites, The Pirate Bay,was raided by Swedish police and went offline Dec. 9.

Most pirated shows of 2014:

1. Game of Thrones (8.1 million)

2. The Walking Dead (4.8 million)

3. The Big Bang Theory (3.9 million)

4. How I Met Your Mother (3.5 million)

5. Gotham (3.2 million)

6. Arrow (2.9 million)

7. Grey's Anatomy (2.8 million)

8. Vikings (2.7 million)

9. Suits (2.5 million)

10. South Park (2.4 million)

 

Gavin Stern is a national digital producer for the Scripps National Desk.