Watch CBS News

This was the most pirated TV show of 2015

Drumroll, please -- what was the most pirated TV show of 2015? For the fourth year in a row, it's "Game of Thrones." HBO's Emmy-winning fantasy drama was top of the list with 14.4 million illegal downloads of its season finale episode, according to TorrentFreak, a site that tracks piracy and file-sharing trends.

This was double the 8.1 million downloads that shot the show to the top of last year's list.

More than half the downloads took place in the first week after the show aired. Perhaps yet another indication that people's television habits are changing, this number exceeds that of the total number of traditional TV viewers who watch the show on HBO.

Next on the list behind "Game of Thrones" came AMC's "The Walking Dead" and CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," which had 6.9 and 4.4 million pirated downloads, respectively, TorrentFreak reported.

Rounding out the top five were a pair of CW superhero shows: "Arrow," with 3.9 million downloads, and "The Flash," with 3.6 million.

"Game of Thrones" also broke another piracy record in June, when 258,131 people shared the same torrent file of the series's season finale at the same time.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.