Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent
Written by Ernesto on September 30, 2008TV shows are by far the most wanted files via BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s fast becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?
As we already predicted last week, Heroes is leading this weeks chart. Our statistics show that, across all BitTorrent sites, the two episodes from Heroes’ season opening were downloaded approximately two million times each in one week.
The show was downloaded the most in the UK (15%), where the official season opening is scheduled for October 1st. Canada, France and Australia complete the top 5. Although most TV-broadcasters won’t be happy to read these figures, one could argue that BitTorrent has actually helped TV-shows to build a stronger, broader, and more involved fanbase.
The data is collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only.
At the end of the year we will publish a list of most downloaded TV-shows for the entire year, like we did last December.
Top Downloads September 21 – September 28
| Ranking | (last week) | TV-show |
| 1 | (new) | Heroes |
| 2 | (1) | Prison Break |
| 3 | (new) | Grey’s Anatomy |
| 4 | (2) | House |
| 5 | (4) | Smallville |
| 6 | (3) | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles |
| 7 | (7) | Entourage |
| 8 | (9) | Gossip Girl |
| 9 | (6) | Stargate Atlantis |
| 10 | (5) | Fringe |
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23 Responses
While SGA was starting get quite boring… anybody else think the last EP “Queen” was pretty good?
I thought Dexter would be there or does everyone think its terrible?
@2 They had already grabbed the pre-air’d version.
Bittorrent definately helped TV-shows get a lot of fans
4#
I know more people pirating tv shows than they actually see them on the tellie
The office has started back up, so hopefully that will make the charts.
The Office is a quality show, original and smart.
The numbers of people torrenting TV compared to those watching broadcast is miniscule, but the people who torrent generally lead the pack and can create a buzz that broadcasters can exploit providing that they get on the ball and show the prog as soon as possible.
The BBC seems to be doing that with the new Heroes (and also Little Britain USA).
You know the biggest problem here is greed. Torrenting tv shows is a GOLD MINE. But they want the gold mine that has full control.. see ive figured out its not even about just the commercials..
its about knowing who you are, where you live, what time you watch the shows, how often, ect ect.
I DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT INFORMATION. F*CK OFF.
I WILL watch my shows when I want to.
I WILL watch them in any format I want to.
I WILL watch them anonymously.
I WILL copy and share them with my friends.
I dont care about marketing, I dont care about statistics.. I do believe in BUYING media, if it suits me, not them.
Figure out how to please me, or no sale. Idiots.
@8 true true. They really just need to get online and mingle amongst us “common folk” … they might actually learn a thing or two
@1
Hell yeah, SGA has been getting really good.
Grey Anatomy???
A lot of girl are torrenting!!
girls? where? boobs? e-boobs?
*pants*
No ‘The Office’? C’mon now… we all know it is better than ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ or ‘Smallville’.
i think it takes time to make the chart, the first episode of the new season wont just slam them on the chart, it might be on the next one.
The first episode of Atlantis with Daniel Jackson was very cool and the second part in 2 weeks will be awesome. If you haven’t seen the Spoiler clip already leaked on the Web, don’t watch it. Unless you want to know Who the guys in those armor suits are! :) Totally awesome! :)
Yep, that SGA episode was definitely one of the better ones. I also like what they have done with the title cinematic (ie. They have shortened it considerably…finally).
I am still a little unsure how NCIS is going to play out this year.. They did the “breaking up the team” once too many times I think but will just have to see if turns out to be predictable BS that has been plaguing the series for the last couple of seasons..
The two worst shows on TV are #1 and #2.
Ugh
Stopped watching Prison Break soon
into Season Two…
Aaaanyway,
Just wanted to say that I hardly _ever_ watch broadcast TV – & if a film is listed as being on I want to see, I generally download it instead.
Tv-wise, Torrenting has got me into some US shows that are either months late reaching my shores or would never be shown here at all (e.g. Colbert, Daily Show, SNL & loads of Adult Swim stuff to name but a few).
$0.02 worth.
HTH
HAND
YMMV
kthxbai
=]
Dexter is a great tv show.
I’ve never seen a recent HBO or Showtime show.
It had an amazing first season and I am downloading the second one right now.
If you want to see a good tv show, check Dexter out.
#1
So true, the last episode os SG:A was really good, after a too long period with boring episodes.
Also, for anyone who didn’t know, this is the last season of Stargate Atlantis. It’s nice to see that it’ll end popular like this.
I’m a bit shocked that True Blood, and Sons of Anarchy aren’t listed.
Sometimes it amazes me how different people’s viewing habits are.
It’s not a tivo – the selection is very, very limited. PBS shows aren’t even available. It’s mostly network crap, and some good cable shows. If the selection were better, and you used a client that had a web interface like utorrent, you could order up your shows at work and they’d be there when you got home. that’d be nice….
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