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Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent

TV-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 sharing?

lostEvery week we take a look at the most downloaded TV-Shows on BitTorrent. Lost is leading the chart this week, followed by Heroes, Prison Break and 24.

The data for the most recent TV episodes listed below are collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only. The data for the second list is based on the total number of downloads (not only recent episodes) of all shows in the past week is provided by ShowInsider.

Most Downloads (recent episodes)

April 27 – May 3
ranking (prev) show est. downloads
torrentfreak.com
1 (…) Lost 1,710,000
2 (1) Heroes 1,630,000
3 (2) Prison Break 920,000
4 (3) 24 750,000
5 (…) House M.D. 720,000
6 (4) Desperate Housewives 680,000
7 (5) Family Guy 570,000
8 (…) The Big Bang Theory 490,000
9 (6) Smallville 475,000
10 (9) Fringe 460,000

Most Downloads (all episodes)

April 27 – May 03
Ranking (last week) TV-show
showinsider.com
1 (1) Heroes
2 (2) Lost
3 (4) House M.D.
4 (3) 24
5 (11) How I Met Your Mother
6 (7) Prison Break
7 (6) Grey’s Anatomy
8 (10) Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
9 (5) Desperate Housewives
10 (9) Gossip Girl

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  • ff7scloud

    It’s because people want to watch them commercial free. Like I do. Reminds though that I got catch up on heroes and a few others. =)

  • xsaimex

    Surprisingly there is no Breaking Bad on the list.

  • Frankenchrist

    It’s funny that they are all shows from basic channels. I would have figured there would be more shows from HBO/Showtime pirated.

  • TypingLOL_CauseCancer

    Commercial have been pretty bad as of late. Trying to convince my mother to get a DVR box…

  • Wouter

    I don’t get how ABC shows are PIRATE DOWNLOADS when you can record them on VHS or DVR anyway. furthermore its a free broadcast supported via adds…

    Just keep the adds inplace and then it’s legal right ?

    If cable companies charged … $10 for all the channels and then extra for PPV and speciality channels we wouldn’t need to download anything.

    The greedy SOBS are creating their own fall.
    Finaly peope are waking up.
    99c for a song you like works… make it 25c and piracy is almost gone.

  • Capn

    @Wouter. International viewers, not everyone lives in the US

  • hardy harhar

    true, not everyone is waiting for weeks/months to watch it on t.v. … i dont think i will ever go back to watching t.v.: dont have control over when to watch. also not a big fan of commercial breaks, but they seem to be necessary on tv so to me thats not the reason to not watch it on television. if there was an option to watch things when i want, ads included, i would definitely do that.

    but till then, im a pirate.

  • Celesto

    how the f… is downloading SCC. it s so bad!

  • word

    yeah #7

    What they got to understand is that im not the type of person thats going to listen to ANY commercial or ad, I use ADBLOCK in firefox and you may argue that its somehow hurting the industry.. but I wouldnt click on a ad even if it was the last webpage to go to.

    Its amazing how much time you save not watching commercials in shows too.. its like il watch a show and look at the clock and im like wtf watching TV used to eat up so much more time..

  • Gargamel

    @8: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is actually one of the best science fiction shows that’s been on for ages – though I wouldn’t expect juveniles to really appreciate this of course.

    The complex plot, character development – particuarly John Connor and Cameron – and way that the show questions humanity, machines and the interaction and relationships between them is frankly superb.

    One of the best shows in years. It would have been so easy to make just another mindless action drama, instead it has delved deep down into quite philosophical territory and woven an extremel;y complex plot. Though, as I said, youngsters and retards probably don’t get it and of course I bet your basing your opinion off watching the first 2 or 3 episodes.

    Here’s hoping Fox lets season 3 go ahead.

  • Anonymous

    @ #10, Gargamel:

    When all else fails, insult the people who disagree with you. If they don’t like the same shows that YOU like, they must be of low intelligence. For someone supposedly of such high intelligence, you strangely don’t seem to know that “your” does not mean “you are”.

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  • hardy harhar

    see how even the previous two posts here are advertisements? stop wasting my time, motherfxckers!!!

  • jeffy

    Breaking bad should be here, it’s way better than any of this shows…

    And yes, most of thoses who are pirating TV shows are international viewers like me. I’m in france and if i wasnt pirating us shows i would have to wait for months (even years sometimes) before it’d eventually air here. Not to mention the crappy dubbin which comes along…

  • kos

    Its great for shift workers who can’t see TV on a regular bases or when we forget to set the VCR or digital recorders. It’s very hard to try an follow a series when you work rotating shifts.

  • NastyBedazzler

    I agree with both xsaimex and jeffy… I wish Breaking Bad would make this list, it’s a worthy contender.

    AMC green-lighted a third season so it still has time to make this list.

  • terminaldummy

    It’s hilarious how disconnected the RIAA/MAFIAA are from reality. They think copyright infringement is the MINORITY ? Yeah right. It’s bigger then EVER before thanks to fast internet and evolving technology like iPod, PMPs, ect. As everyone has said, it’s here to stay. If you want people to pay for your products you should provide a service that is BETTER then piracy for a good price. For instance I am signed up at Netflix and I use it to stream movies that I’d otherwise have downloaded with bit torrent. If they had a better selection of movies, television shows, and quality, I’d use them ENTIRELY and not have to store all the crap on my hard drive. So, if you want Piracy to stop you have to give people a BETTER option then what they currently have, not a WORSE one! Get your head out of the clouds and get with the times. I actively spread knowledge about BT, public and private trackers, FTP, et all and this only creates a larger and stronger base for us.

    Get with the times and deliver us something that we are WILLING to pay for!

  • adams

    @18 That sounds about right. The industry needs to understand that this is the 21st century. We’re not in the 1950′s anymore. Provide a better business model and you will have the customers.

  • torrentsareourfriends

    got to laugh at this. Wolverine succeeds so pirating instead supports terrorism. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3ie26f7476bfdfcde60f40f68035744145

  • Sam

    I Really wonder why this is the most recent post, because road runner cable (the isp) just blocked all access to thepiratebay.org and thepiratebay.se (or so I think, maybe they got attacked via XSS)

  • hpavc

    I actually have comcast cable tv, but i still download to not have commercials.

  • Sam

    Edit on my post, TPB is down all over the US, that’s as far as I know, I will soon be checking with sweeden based proxies, why isn’t anyone writing about this???

  • Izkata

    @10 & @11: Besidese the interesting plot, even just action-wise, The Sarah Connor Chronicles really picked up midway through the second season. Even those that don’t like how it started would probably like it now.

    I mean, the season finale had John and Weaver (a liquid metal terminator on the human’s side) jump into the future, trying to follow John Henry.. Except they removed John from the timeline, and the future-ites don’t know the name “John Connor” anymore.

  • Boesterd

    @23 May 05, 2009 at 17:20 by Sam
    Down in The Netherlands too….

  • Hollywood !

    @ comment #2: I agree.

    Reason why I download TV torrents is mostly because these shows don’t air (yet?) in my neck of the woods. Or if they do, they are usually more than a season behind America.

    Breaking Bad (Good Example) I download because AMC is the only one broadcasting this series. And AMC isn’t a channel I can receive, so: I download it.

    And when and if: I’ll buy the dvd’s. Especially if it features cool extra’s & bonusmaterial! And if it ever airs here.. I’ll watch it again. No sh*t.

  • JavCorten

    @23:

    Down in Mexico too.

  • adams

    piratebay is working just fine for me

    (usa)

  • Hollywood !

    Oh.. and by the way: I’ve got the perfect solution for Hollywood (the biz..) and the end-users.

    It’s a plan so simple,so righteous,and so incredible do-able. If I held a symposium today with the ‘key’players concerned with this? Within six months all would be satisfied, including the torrentcommunity and the internet in it’s whole.

    I’ll look into it.

  • Hollywood !

    I know I have a sick sense of humor, granted. And as a wanna-be writer I endulge myself in false flag conspiracy theories, because well.. sometimes there is more than meets the eye at first glance. And well… from that point on it’s really a question of weighing facts. And in my case: running with rejected scenarios and building upon that. Mingling fact, fiction, truth and lies untill you come up with something so ridiculous.. that you can almost believe it.

    But I’m dwelling off: perfect model, that’s it.

  • Hollywood !

    TorrentTV.. I’m your’s. Let me do a segment on this. We’ll show some graphs on downloading und so on.

    Let’s resolve this thing! Before idealist like the people from TPB are hauled off to jail and the spirit of Hollywood gets lost forever.

  • Hollywood !

    I’m thinking: well..you know, they said some shit, we said some shit.

    They sued us, we counter-sued them (and we’ve got a better case than them, but that aside;)

    They did some bad shit, we did some bad shit.. but scr*w all that.

    There is still time yo! We can still all walk out -winners-.

  • Hollywood !

    Ahw come on.

    Don’t make me quote M.L. King, or Obama. Because you -know- that I have a dream! And yes, I know we can!

  • Sebastian

    To answer the questions earlier in the conversation. Here in Finland it can take a long time until the shows air on television (5-24months). And some of them never come to us or then they get canceled after a few seasons. Stargate was shown in Finland only until season 5 and after that they stoped it. So thats one of the reasons why people in other countries (or atleast in Finland) download torrents.

  • moi

    and guess what, theres not a Dominoes, McDonalds, KFC, Coke, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks in ANY of those shows, LOL
    so why the fuck pay for them?
    ;p

  • Anonymous

    Almost all of (or all of them, i don’t watch them all) these T.V. shows can be seen for free on the internet with periodic add breaks, and its really nice. Of course this might still be a U.S. only thing, but its still everything i’ve asked for, and i no longer have to pirate any of my shows.

    I’m not sure that every episode is online, it might only be the last three or four, but it still works for me

  • 5318008

    Good torrent, no viruses. Just unzip and load into VLC or Media Player, easy! Good sync, video 8/10, audio maybe 7, would definately recommend to friends. LOLOL!

  • aiee

    Breaking Bad isn’t on list because there wasn’t sceneversion available, BitMeTV & HDBits got WEBRIP and TS as first trackers, but like 48 hours after broadcasting.

  • mr.hardy

    For me nr.1 show is Breaking Bad.Heisenberg is the MAN!lol.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L1rWWWZnxs

    Muy chingon!

  • Wouter

    I feel for everyone out there that cant watch on Hulu.com, Abc and the likes.
    I just sent my parents the whole BSG and Prison Break … I guess Customs will flip their lids if they decide to watch homemovie.avi. More seriously though, ISP’s are all pushing for bandwidth caps in the US … then it will be buy buy torrents. Pretty sure the studios are pumping big money to kill us. Can you say GreedyMoFo*

  • aiee

    Wouter, one word: seedbox.

  • Jack

    Someone should think about the big crowd, that watches the shows.

    If my show would be on the top ten list I would be very proud.
    Why they don’t offer tv shows for dl with some small ads.

    I really don’t understand the prehistoric producers.

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  • nbucking

    Why is Fringe so low on the list? It is probably the best show out there.

  • mitcoes

    A lot of fear for so little download, What is it? a 1% of live audience, I think more less.

    In spain the TV soap “Los hombres de Paco” put their episodes free on web, in 6 parts with a previous add. And you cannot find any copy to download becouse of it.

    it would be even better to make them the LEGAL torrents with adds inside the sopas printed – no pauses – and some cut with only one add as sponsor (no more than 6) it would be an excellent way of monetize the small amount of downloads, compared with direct TV audience.

    This is killing flys with cannons.

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  • Kaze

    I´m from Brazil, and I want to watch some shows like House MD and 24 as they launch, because cable tv companies doesn´t have all the channels in which these series are showing or they don´t show them in their primetime, or even worse, they take 6 months to 1 year to broadcast them…
    So I turn to torrents!
    For those concerning the bussiness model and profits, I still rent the boxes when they lauch, to watch it without the ads and I eventually buy the ones I care most, so I guess the studios are just shooting their feet on this one…

  • Canadian Sweetheart

    On channels like CBC if you go to the website you can watch episodes form that season. It’s a helpful way not to pirate.
    I watch television/movies online because I either don’t get the channel (even with satellite some American channels are unavailable like Disney and ABC Family) or I miss parts of a show. You get up for 10 minutes, miss something really important, and you have to watch the show over or you can just watch it online.
    Online is simply easier

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