With 2013 nearing its end TorrentFreak (TF) has released the list for their Top 10 Most Pirated Shows and Game of Thrones takes the crown again this year followed by Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. Game of Thrones holds the honour of becoming the most downloaded TV-show for the third year in a row.

With 5.9 million downloads via BitTorrent, the 2013 season finale beat the competition by a landslide. More than half the downloads happened in the first week after the show aired and apparently the total exceeds the number of traditional viewers in the US.

Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead complete the top three with an estimated 4.2 and 3.6 million downloadsa are est respectively. The datimated by TorrentFreak based on several sources, including download statistics reported by public BitTorrent trackers.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Game of Thrones topped the charts as the show has broken two piracy records already this year, with over 170,000 people sharing a copy of an episode simultaneously.

There are a wide variety of reasons why people download TV-shows, but to a certain degree one could claim that HBO is to blame for the massive piracy of Game of Thrones. The network prefers to keep access to the show exclusive and even Netflix wasn’t able to buy the rights no matter what they offered.
Interestingly enough, TF also learned this year that the huge number of unauthorised downloads don’t bother the show’s makers much. Game of Thrones director David Petrarca previously  admitted to TorrentFreak that piracy generated much-needed “cultural buzz” around his show.