For the 6th consecutive year the fantasy drama series Game of Thrones has been the most pirated TV show in the world, followed by the zombie drama, The Walking Dead in second place as the TV series people illegally watched the most in 2017.
While new episodes of Game of Thrones seen on M-Net (DStv 101) and The Walking Dead on FOX (DStv 125 /StarSat 131 / Cell C black 201) continue to show within 24 hours of its American broadcast during in-season broadcast, several channels ranging from M-Net to FOX have drastically cut back in 2017 on its "Express from the US" roll-out and is once again making South African and African pay-TV subscribers wait long periods before showing episodes and starting latest seasons of hit shows.
If the list is taken as an indicator of what the most sought-after TV shows in the world were in 2017, it indicates that M-Net once again kept its title as the South African TV channel with the most sought-after shows: the licensing rights of a whopping 7 out of the top 10 most pirated shows on TorrentFreak's 2017 list belong to M-Net.
In 2017 Game of Thrones was once again the biggest dragon in the TV pirate viewing world through BitTorrent.
Besides being the most stolen TV show of the year - aided by several hacks, leaks and piracy of episodes, a massive 400 000 people worldwide actively shared a single episode of the 7th season at its peak, right after the latest season finale flooded piracy sites.
The shows Prison Break on M-Net, Rick and Morty on Netflix and Sherlock seen on BBC First (DStv 119) made the top 10 most pirated TV shows list for the first time, while The Flash (M-Net), The Big Bang Theory (M-Net), Vikings (M-Net), Suits (M-Net) and Arrow (M-Net).
Interestingly, M-Net that did away with the M-Net Edge (DStv 102) channel in April 2017, has dropped both Arrow and The Flash as former Express from the US titles, with South African viewers who are going to be extremely confused in 2018 by the 4-episode cross-over story arch playing out in the latest seasons of these two shows as well as Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow that M-Net won't be showing in the right order.
Below is the list of the most torrented TV-shows worldwide in 2017 for a single episode, compiled by TorrentFreak and based on statistics reported by public BitTorrent trackers:
1. Game of Thrones
2. The Walking Dead
3. The Flash
4. The Big Bang Theory
5. Rick and Morty
6. Prison Break
7. Sherlock
8. Vikings
9. Suits
10. Arrow
