The Most Popular Illegal Downloads

A research company has been checking torrents and come up with the most illegally-downloaded TV shows and movies.

So what are the most popular TV shows and movies among those who download illegally? It might not be a question many of us consider, but research company Big Champagne has. It checked the torrents – the places where people download illegally – to find out.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Heroes is the winner, with around 55 million people downloading it this year, followed by Lost, with 51 million illegal downloads. They also discovered some interesting statistics – that there’s been an increase in the illegal download of films and TV shows compared to music, and that visits to torrent sites have almost doubled in the last 12 months, the BBC reports.

Big Champagne chief executive Eric Garland said:

"Millions of television viewers now access free, unauthorized versions of favorite shows at least some of the time.”
"This is a socially acceptable form of casual piracy – and it is replacing viewing hours."

For TV shows, the top 10 was all American, and pretty much the usual suspects – 24, Prison, Break, House, Desperate Housewives, etc.

Among movies, Watchmen stood out with almost 17 million illegal downloads, with The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is second place with just over 13 million.