Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent
Written by Ernesto on February 26, 2009TV-shows are some of the most wanted files on BitTorrent, and according to some, it’s becoming the modern day TiVo. But what are all those people downloading?
Every week we take a look at the most downloaded TV-Shows on BitTorrent. Lost, which had the honor of being the most pirated show of 2008 and is again leading the TV-download chart this week.
Last week, Heroes took over but Lost is again on top. Both Heroes and Lost were downloaded well over a million times, beating the rest of the shows by a landslide.
The data for the most recent TV episodes listed below are collected by TorrentFreak. We use a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only. The data for the second list based on the total number of downloads (not only recent episodes) of all shows in the past week is provided by ShowInsider.
Top Downloads (Recent Episodes)
| ranking | (last week) | show | est. downloads |
|---|---|---|---|
| torrentfreak.com | |||
| 1 | (2) | Lost | 1,850,000 |
| 2 | (1) | Heroes | 1,790,000 |
| 3 | (3) | 24 | 680,000 |
| 4 | (4) | Desperate Housewives | 540,000 |
| 5 | (5) | Battlestar Galactica | 520,000 |
| 6 | (…) | House M.D. | 490,000 |
| 7 | (8) | Grey’s Anatomy | 470,000 |
| 8 | (9) | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | 430,000 |
| 9 | (…) | Family Guy | 420,000 |
| 10 | (10) | Dollhouse | 390,000 |
Top Downloads (All Episodes)
| Ranking | (last week) | TV-show | |
|---|---|---|---|
| showinsider.com | |||
| 1 | (1) | Lost | |
| 2 | (2) | Heroes | |
| 3 | (4) | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles | |
| 4 | (12) | Star Wars: The Clone Wars | |
| 5 | (7) | House M.D. | |
| 6 | (14) | Prison Break | |
| 7 | (3) | 24 | |
| 8 | (10) | 90210 | |
| 9 | (8) | Grey’s Anatomy | |
| 10 | (5) | Desperate Housewives | |
Previously: Pirate Bay Trial Day 9: BitTorrent Is Not Evil
Next: How To Kill The Music Industry
33 Responses
I’m lost
It seems like there is a new episode to battlestar Galactica, but I cant find it?
@1
I lost.
Suck it, Heroes.
This season of Lost so far has been a bit disappointing but I’m expecting it to get much better after the last episode (I don’t want to give any spoilers). House has been incredible so far and it’s one of my favorite shows on television right now.
Hopefully Breaking Bad will make its way on these charts after it starts airing in a week or so. That’s a great show for any of you who haven’t seen it
What?
No Kamen Rider?
I’m suprised Supernatural isn’t on there. Same with Burn Notice.
Enjoying Lost a lot though.
How did Prison Break jump up soo much on the all time list?
Here’s some simple logic that our European and North American friends may miss. I live in South Africa – we don’t always have our movies and TV shows released at the same time as you guys. Basically I must wait on the marketing departments of Warner brothers or Disney to decide when I may watch the latest movies. Sorry, its easier for me to download the latest show on my crappy internet connection – we are still lucky to achieve 50kb/s, than wait six months or a year for the official release. The same goes with music – forget metal or European pop the whole focus is on R&B and hip hop crap. I had the whole of Nightwish years before it was available in South Africa – only through torrents. And lastly, the music companies are stupid thinking that I will pay the silly – in local currency – costs of downloading off the likes of i-tunes. It is the same price as buying a hard copy. How can an electronic version – no factory to produce, no distribution network, no retailer – cost the same or more than an electronic version???? When the music industry stops screwing me I’ll stop screwing them.
I live in Europa.
And it is not uncomming that we are 1, 1½ seson behide the US.
And if I like the TV show I don’t want to wait.
Also as TV Shows, and more common with movies, then I can buy them from the US/Asian before the hit the airways/cinemas here.
So one good way to fight the illigal downloads of TV shows and movies. Might be just to make globel release.
And No the price for a DRM free digital download do not cost the same as a DVD version.
It’s a lot cheaper to distribu digital versions then hardware versions.
Where’s Futurama? :’(
Lost is the best. Heroes is ok.
I watch five series, and all of them are in the top five. Nice!
Here in Hungary none of them are on air by tv channels. Oops sorry, The Sarah Connor Chronicles season 1 has been just cancelled after episode 4. It has had around 1 million viewers in a country populated by only ten million.
So torrent is our only option to get some entertainment :)
Hi fellow thieves.
Just wanted to send greetings from Guatemala. Took me a year to download 24 Season 1 but I am now the local hero. God bless the people who share.
Your fellow faithful thief
Fernandez
Many of these shows are available (via streaming) right on the broadcasting station’s website.
@ Galatorg
Streaming is only available in the U.S. or atleast not available in Italy (I have tried).
Can’t remember the last time I watched TV… Watch my shows when I have time, pause, no commercials. Can’t beat that.
About Supernatural;
I’ve noticed that the shows seem to go up and down in the rankings, according to when they air new episodes. For a couple months, Terminator wasn’t on the list at all and this coincides with the time they were off the air. Supernatural hasn’t aired a new episode in quite some time, so it’s not surprising that it’s not on the list.
@16 Galatorg
“Many of these shows are available (via streaming) right on the broadcasting station’s website.”
That is US only.
If you are anywhere in the rest of the world you can’t
You can’t even get them via iTunes or other programs/services like that, if you do not have an US IP address.
Indeed, how can the media industry complain about not making sales if they don’t offer it to me to buy?
(and I also don’t want some rent actually, I want to own it and watch it whenever I want to)
And the whole US only thing I don’t get either. There’s hulu but only in the US. Is it that hard to sell ads for the rest of the world and enable us to watch it?
house is the only decent show on the list
people need to stop watching crap
How can a TV show be pirated? its fuking free as it is. Whats the difference if you watch it from a torrent or Hulu.com? This play of words pisses me off. ah, who cares, i dont give a shit anywayz. Let the cracked games begin!
I watch Heroes/Office/Numb3rs on the air, then download it and re-watch to catch things I’ve missed (with the added bonus of HD).
That said, I don’t have cable/sat so there are a couple shows I can’t see otherwise (like Dexter, which I suspect will climb right into the chart once the new ones come out.)
Looked at streaming, get told that it only works in the uSa, so I can either get a uSa vpn account for £13 per month or d/l a lag free copy.
Unable to watch most tv shows until they come out on DVD a good year later, sky is ok if u do not mind lots and lots of adverts
Heroes? Gimme a break!
I like Prison Break and House best.
Also Knight Rider 2008 for lame entertainment.
@Kraid:
Futurama series were more than great, but lately only a full-length movies have came out. And bad ones [the first one was quite OK, but still, series were a LOT better for some reason (maybe they had too many ideas and pushed them together in one movie)].
House, last of ER’s, Gene Simmons (when it comes back), Grey’s A, Reaper (when it comes back), the last of BG … those are my picks.
I’m in luv with Lost. Best soap ever. Fun, clever, arty references strewn across the Landscape, interesting familiar characters (I love them all now), suspense, mystery, great production values, good locations, sorta SF, sorta a spiritual voyage. Not a single episode where I don’t gasp.
Ad free, can watch it reliably (the Australian channel treats its audience like sh*t). Of course it’s No.1.
I know atleast 3 of those shows are available on demand for free at the networks websites (sarah connor chronicles on fox for example). Why are these all downloaded via torrent when they already are being provided for free?
#30 if you read the comments then you will notic that you can only watch them if you live in the USA
The rest of the world have to wait 1 year or sometime longer to get it on DVD or on TV
So if the only way you can see your show is by getting a pirat version of it. Then that’s the way most people will do it
but they should seed more
Living in Thailand for 8 years and used to good quality TV series in europe and US. i was for 2 years very dissapointed with Thai TV, they always get the shows that are cancelled in the US after season 1… very rare do we get anything good and if so very very late. Thank God for torrents
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