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Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent

TV shows are by far the most wanted files on BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?

top gearHeroes is leading the chart again, with over two million downloads for the latest episode only, closely followed by Prison Break. Jack Bauer returns shortly in 8th place.

The data for the most recent TV episodes are collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only.

Thanks to ShowInsider we now also include a list based on the total number of downloads (not only recent episodes) of all shows in the past week.

Top Downloads (Recent Episodes)

November 23 – November 30
Ranking (last week) TV-show
torrentfreak.com
1 (1) Heroes
2 (2) Prison Break
3 (8) Dexter
4 (3) House
5 (…) Entourage
6 (…) Californication
7 (…) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
8 (…) 24: Redemption
9 (…) True Blood
10 (…) Top Gear

Top Downloads (All Episodes)

November 23 – November 30
Ranking (last week) TV-show
showinsider.com
1 (1) Heroes
2 (2) Prison Break
3 (3) Dexter
4 (4) Desperate Housewives
5 (9) Grey’s Anatomy
6 (6) True Blood
7 (10) Smallville
8 (5) Californication
9 (15) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
10 (11) House

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  • Grr

    How is Heroes still number one, there are a lot of people lying. Heroes must be like the Spice Girls everyone lies….we all know you’re lying and still watching!

  • TheDataWhore

    And Heroes is starting to go down hill this season too. I for one probably won’t be downloading it again next season unless they pull something pretty big out of their asses.

  • wharbgarbl

    Can someone tell me how you can “Pirate” a TV show when it shows up on your TV anyway. It occurs to me that we would have a lot less complaints about being able to freely ‘copy’ food to feed the starving in Africa. Or would farmers complain that they are being put out of work due to agriculture piracy.

  • That Guy

    I dont actually watch heros, but ive heard its really gone down since the first season and that only the die hard fans still watch it. Is that so? If it is I dont see any reason to start watching it. All i would have to expect is utter disappointment.

    Visit P2P Tech Time
    http://www.p2ptechtime.com

  • insane

    Heros = Yawn & shift+del :P

  • insane

    Heroes = Yawn & shift+del :P lol

  • Anonymous

    Heroes is terrible this season, it has the consistency of a goddamn Harry Potter novel. It seems like the use a different writer for every episode and they have conflicting ideas for where to take the show.

  • http://www.eZee.se www.eZee.se

    People still watch Heroes as they have followed it for 2 seasons… now they are just waiting for this season to end.

    Its like watching a crappy movie for 60 minutes hoping it will improve, when you realize that its not going to improve however much you hope but you still have 15 mins to go… usually you just go through with it and immd after hit the delete button..

  • Raul

    “Or would farmers complain that they are being put out of work due to agriculture piracy.”

    Unfortunately, Monsanto has already started doing this.

  • Narutard

    That’s great and all. Except it’s missing the most popular and most torrented TV Show of all. Naruto.

    Naruto is definetely downloaded a lot more.

  • Izkata

    I don’t know, Heroes seems to be much better this season than second season.

    I especially liked the ending last night. I wonder what Hiro and Claire are going to learn…

  • Izkata

    @Narutard: Dattebayo will stop subbing Naruto in January. Downloads for it will then drop immensely.

  • iiZNZNZNZ!!

    Best new series: “True Blood”

    That is all

    kthxbye

    well not yet!

    Dexter has jumped from #8 to #3 in terms of downloads.

    nowbyebye

  • Something

    Heroes is pretty good, the story does seem to be a bit all over the place ATM but it’s better than season two and it’s improving over the start.
    And in all honesty it’s the best thing on the list.
    Top gear always good and should be higher and the rest is garbage(Oh and I’ve seen everything on the list and used to follow some but their just not that great).

  • anonmymoasudua

    nice, I haven’t seen true blood up there before… I started watching it when the pre-airs was leaked and you guys mentioned it on here. I’ve loved every episode except I have mixed feelings about the last 10 minutes of the season finale :(

  • Jacob

    @3

    Yes that thought has occured to me. I thought that if it is available on your tv screen then how is it really copying it if you keep it. I mean for god sakes unless its comming over a cable then their broadcasting the tv show OMFG that means anyone can see it. WTF do they expect people to do. But below is what i though:

    Now whether the signal for the tv episode comes from a cable or the air it doesnt make a difrence. Now the broadcasters have been given permission to broadcast the tv show right. Now normally that tv show signal would go through the “air/cable” and into our tv screens. Now what if we where to do a little rewiring here and change the output to a hdd on the computer. Now we have still consumed the same signal that was broadcasted with the permission of the persision granter. Now so far I do not see how recieving a signall that was broadcasted legally with the intention of the end users recieving and consuming the signal. Now that the signall being broacasted is on our hard drives it will continue to be broadcasted with the aproval of the Copyright owner via relaying the broadcasting signall over a p2p internet. Now as far as i know relay stations are not illegal. And really how could you say that someone copyed the movie when since could prove that it is unlikely sumone sat down and copyed a rugby field of 1 and 0s down without making enough mistakes to call it a difrent peace of work. Now say that their was someone on the moon who had a really flash aerial that defied science and could recieve any signal from anywhere. Now if he watched something being broadcasted in america would that be the broadcasters fault for broadcasting outside of the zones they where licensed to with that episode, no it wouldnt. Would that be the fault of the moon guy, no it wouldnt as he wouldnt know all their contracts and blah blah blah and it is available on his aerial and it is a legall broadcast. Why can you not recieve a leggall broadcast without breaking the law? Well i guess they could make something up. But that would be like me crossing the road and a policemen saying oh no you can not do that I just made up a law that people cant walk on streets so your going to jail.

  • Jacob

    Oh yer also by the way. A tv show being broadcasted that shows up on your tv has already been copied many times in machinery. So if theyre giving us permission to copy it in order to have access to it. And the copyright owners are fine with it, then don’t we have all the permission to copy, and p2p?

    And with cd/dvd and over portable media it was desighned to (transport digital content) and so by puting their content on such a medium they are basicly implying whether intentionally or not that they give us permission to copy such data. Now say I go to the shops and buy a music cd, now I go home and put the music on my pc. Now how have i broken the law? Now say i lent the cd to my mate how have we broken the law? Now say i just lend him all the songs stored on the disc just like i lent him the disc, only i didnt use the disc that was used to transport the content to me, instead i use p2p. Now he has the song and how have i brocken the law. I guess im guilty of illegally transporting 1and 0s OMG im a criminal! lock me up! arbghh nooooo! Now say he allso lends the song to someone else, but he to instead of using the slow postal service uses the interweb :P. He to can’t be guilty of anything. Now I do not think they can take our right to lend to people away.

    Allso you could say that the content was designed intentionally or not intentionally by the makers to be copied, not only by the way it was distributed btu allso in the form it was created and came to be in existence (in 1s and 0s on digital media). And that the way they made it impiles whether this was their intention or not that we can go and copy to hell frezes over. Because if you brought a car that was made in a way that it could drive when fuel was inserted then you could say its made that way and thats what they imply and want you to do. Now there is no way i could see that they could possibly refuse permision once granted overwise they could give permission, take it back, and sue the heck out of everyone.

    Now if it is a desighn flaw they have had a long time to fix it. They can not blame us for using their product the way it was desighned to be used. For instance you could not sell a car that floats and has an outboard engine on it and then sue people who drive it in the sea because you said it was a “Car” not an “amphibious car”.

  • eMan

    Dexter Rules!!!

    Heroes belongs on downloading lists but is definitelly not deserving of any dvd sales. Milo and Hayden are bad actors, but do good cuz they are decent to look at. The plot is more the writers cleaning up the mess they started in the beginning of the season. Also, what the hell is with everyone suddenly being related? Am i watching a sci-fi show or an efing soap opera. The show might still be appealing in some aspects (Hiro is hilarious), but seriously it is more of a chore to watch the show than something you sit down to watch while you relax.

    Think I’m gonna go check out californication now.

  • Ali

    Heroes is a good show man, if you look at thier seeds they are always toping 45,000…. yep.. thats not type its 45,000 plus each episode!

    you decide!

  • Ali

    Heroes is a good show man, if you look at their seeds they are always topping 45,000…. yep.. that’s not typo its 45,000 plus each episode!

    you decide!

  • Anonymous

    Terminator is back in the top ten. YAY!

  • Jackson McFlyboy

    Call me a wrong if you must, but wouldn’t Tivo be the modern day Tivo considering Tivo is still here in the modern day :/ ?

  • Sweede

    Aw come-on with the Heroes bashing. It is a good show. Personally I see my downloading it as “recording” it. I prefer to sit down and actually have a marathon session of series. This is true for Supernatural too… surprised it was not on there.

  • Anonymous

    @16

    that would be true, if the ads etc were not removed, as doing so you have modified the original broadcast. It is also my understanding that those TV shows are NOT free to air, they are broadcast over cable with is a paid service in the USA/Canada etc.

  • TorrentHub

    Heroes is a good show man, if you look at thier seeds they are always toping 45,000…. yep.. thats not type its 45,000 plus each episode!

    you decide!

    My 2c – http://www.torrenthub.org

  • simon

    wow, surprised not much love for heroes. that show is awesome! pb too.

  • Julio

    The Sarah Connor chronicles is in the raise because the movies let so many possible turn. I think the show is going better each week and deserved time to growth.
    Dexter is one of the best tv shows ever; True Blood is excellent; House is still the champion of the serious television.
    Heroes is good but in problems, the eclipse thing is not a good idea, this is the first time the old ones loose their powers? why all of them be so surprise? They don’t notice nothing a year ago.
    24, How many time one dude can save the US in 24 straight hours.

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