Zombies, a space bounty hunter and antihero top 2023's most pirated TV shows.

by Thinus Ferreira

A journey through a zombie wasteland, a bounty hunter in a galaxy far, far away and an antihero in time-travel adventures top 2023's list of most-pirated TV shows.

TorrentFreak has released its annual list of most popular TV shows illegally watched last year and video-on-demand (VOD) shows on video streaming services once again dominated the top 10 list.

Netflix has, however, interestingly, failed to make the list in 2023, while it still had Stranger Things in 8th place in the year before in 2022.

The first season of HBO's zombie-wasteland drama series The Last of Us which was on M-Net (DStv 101) tops the list as the most-torrented TV show in 2023, followed by Star Wars' The Mandalorian on Disney+ in 2nd place, and Loki - also on Disney+ - in the 3rd position. 

Two more Disney+ series - Star Wars: Ahsoka and Secret Invasion - respectively took the 4th and 5th places. The science fiction drama series Silo and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - both on Apple TV+ - snagged the 6th and 7th positions.

Tulsa King - the crime drama series with Sylvester Stallone which is a Paramount+ show but was on M-Net and MultiChoice's Showmax streamer in South Africa - took the 8th spot on 2023's TorrentFreak list, with Amazon Prime Video's drama series Gen V and Ted Lasso in the 9th and 10th positions.

"With the current streaming landscape being so fragmented, it appears that many people prefer to pirate instead of paying for another subscription," says Ernesto Van der Sar of TorrentFreak.

"Interestingly, Netflix releases are noticeably absent. Without speculating too much, it seems likely that Netflix users are less likely to give up their subscriptions, as it’s the dominant streaming platform in most parts of the world."

Here's TorrentFreak's compiled list of 2022's Top 10 most-pirated shows:

1. The Last of Us, HBO (M-Net)

2. The Mandalorian, Disney+

3. Loki, Disney+

4. Ahsoka, Disney+

5. Secret Invasion, Disney+

6. Silo, Apple TV+

7. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Apple TV+

8. Tulsa King, Paramount+ (M-Net/Showmax)

9. Gen V, Amazon Prime Video

10. Ted Lasso, Apple TV+

TV's dragons now going after Game of Thrones pirates as South Africa hits the 9th spot on list of countries with highest illegal torrent downloads for fantasy show.

TV's dragons are now aggressively going after Game of Thrones pirates with South Africa that has cracked the 9th place on the list of countries where the HBO show, broadcast on M-Net Edge, has the highest number of illegal downloads.

In a stark - no pun intended - turnaround, HBO has now started to aggressively go after illegal watchers.

HBO previously said "it is a compliment of sorts," to have its highly popular fantasy drama series eagerly devoured by viewers globally not just through official TV broadcasts but also illegal downloads and file-sharing, has now started to aggressively go after illegal watchers.

HBO previously said illegal torrents and downloads which pop up within hours after a new episode is broadcast "certainly didn't negatively impact the DVD sales" and that TV piracy comes with having a highly successful show on subscription television.

With the new 6th season of Game of Thrones, HBO is apparently done with its relaxed approach to copyright infringement of the hit show by millions of people worldwide.

While NCIS remains the world's most watched TV show on broadcast television, Game of Thrones annually breaks the record for the most illegally downloaded show, and by implicating being the TV show most actively sought out by people worldwide.

According to TorrentFreak, HBO, since the start of the new season, is sending out thousands of copyright infringement warnings to alleged pirates in the United States, encouraging them to get an HBO subscription.

In addition, HBO is company is requesting torrent sites to remove Game of Thrones torrents and is doing so incredibly fast - both old torrents as well as new ones after they spring up.

According to TorrentFreak, hundreds of torrents on torrent search sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz have been removed already, with most of the most popular Game of Thrones files that's not available and being removed within minutes after being uploaded.

While South African and Africa DStv subscribers can watch Game of Thrones episodes at exactly the same time as it's broadcast in the United States on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform and with episodes made available on the DStv Catch Up, South Africa has now climbed to the 9th place on the list of biggest Game of Thrones pirates.

The 6th season of Game of Thrones instantly lured the pirates,with the top 10 list of countries where the show is downloaded spanning from the United Kingdom and Canada to Australia and South Africa.

According to TorrentFreak the top 10 list of countries downloading and sharing Game of Thrones since the start of the 6th season the most are:

1.Australia
2.India
3.United States
4.United Kingdom
5.Philippines
6.Canada
7.Netherlands
8.Greece
9.South Africa
10.Saudi Arabia

TorrentFreak says another interesting trend is how fast the number of viewers are growing who are no longer satisfied with standard definition (SD) episodes but want to watch Game of Thrones in high definition (HD) although such a file is much bigger and uses more data.

"An interesting trend among pirates is a move from standard definition (480p) to high-definition (720p and 1080p) video. A few years ago roughly 10% downloaded HD copies, which are larger in size, but today this is getting close to 50%," TorrentFreak reports.

"There's little doubt that Game of Thrones is once again the main contender for the title of most pirated show of the year."

Game of Thrones tops list of most illegally downloaded show for 2015 for 4th year in a row; M-Net has 8 shows on the top 10 list of most pirated programming.

The fantasy drama Game of Thrones on M-Net once again tops the list of the most pirated and most illegally downloaded TV show of the year for the 4th year in a row.

Interestingly, 8 out of the top 10 list of most pirated TV shows worldwide in 2015 is shown in South Africa by M-Net across its range of M-Net supplied channels to MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform, with only 2 of the most popular pirated shows on other pay-TV channels, also on DStv.

TorrentFreak has released its annual list of most pirated TV shows and Game of Thrones on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) by far tops the list for 14,4 million illegal downloads in 2015 so far.

Second is the zombie drama The Walking Dead seen on FOX International Channels' FOX (DStv 125 / StarSat 131) with 6,9 million downloads.

It's followed by nerd comedy The Big Bang Theory on M-Net (DStv 101) with 4,4 million, Arrow on M-Net with 3,9 million, The Flash on Vuzu Amp (DStv 114) with 3,6 million, Mr. Robot on M-Net with 3,5 million and then Vikings on A+E Networks UK's History channel (DStv 186) in 7th place with 3,3 million.

The new Supergirl on Vuzu AMP with 3 million, The Blacklist on M-Net with 2,9 million and Suits on M-Net with 2,6 million round out the top 10 list's 8th, 9th and 10th places.

The astounding numbers are only for the most downloaded single episode of a series, with a series that can only be listed once for the purposes of compiling the list. In reality, multiple individual episodes of a single series on TorrentFreak’s top 10 list for 2015 will have millions of downloads of its own.  

TorrentFreak also says the illegal downloads for each of the shows will actually be "significantly higher" since online streaming and downloads for file-hosting services are not included since there are no public sources to draw data from.

Earlier this year Game of Thrones shattered the all-time piracy record when more than 258 131 people were downloading and sharing the same Game of Thrones episode simultaneously over the internet.

According to TorrentFreak, while 480p versions of TV shows remain the most popular, downloaders are drastically upsizing and upscaling with a large number of people starting to upgrade to higher definition 720p and 1080p versions of TV shows and movies.

TorrentFreak says in 2015 "pirates have shown an increase in interest for higher quality releases compared to earlier years".

While broadcasters and video content suppliers like M-Net, Fox International Channels (FIC), HBO and MultiChoice have been working harder in 2015 than ever before to close the broadcasting gap between the American and international airing of episodes of shows and when it's shown in South Africa and Africa, the prevalence of piracy of TV shows in South Africa and Africa, like in the rest of the world, is increasing.

"There is no sign that TV show piracy is declining," says TorrentFreak. "On the contrary. The download numbers for the most popular shows continues to rise, sometimes exceeding the number of traditional viewers in the United States".