“Game of Thrones” was the most illegally-downloaded TV show for the second year in a row — with 5.9 million downloads via BitTorrent, according to piracy site TorrentFreak.
That means more viewers watched the HBO fantasy drama’s Season Three finale on the popular peer-to-peer file sharing site than by legal means in the US (5.5 million viewers), with more than half the downloads occurring in the first week after the show’s season-ender aired on cable.
“Thrones” easily took the crown ahead of its next closest competitors — AMC’s “Breaking Bad” (4.2 million downloads) and “The Walking Dead” (3.6 million downloads).
Other TV titles making BitTorrent’s top 10 list for 2013 were CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” and “How I Met Your Mother”; Showtime’s “Dexter” and “Homeland”; History’s “Vikings”; USA’s “Suits”; NBCs “Hanniibal”: and The CW’s “Arrow.”