As "The Interview" proved over the Christmas holiday, people are willing to rent or buy (heavily promoted, controversial and headline-grabbing) movies online legally. However, piracy isn’t going away. And in 2014, tens of millions still watched some of the year’s biggest movies and TV shows thanks to a few mouse clicks, and it’s not a surprise what some of the most downloaded entertainment was.
Numbers compiled by TorrentFreak and Excipio (via Variety) reveal that "The Wolf Of Wall Street" and "Game Of Thrones" were the most download film and TV show over the past year, respectively. For the HBO show, it’s the third year running it has come out on top, while it’s interesting to note that downloads of the original and remake of "RoboCop" are what pushed it to the top. But basically, looking at both lists, popular movies and TV shows make for high volume downloads, which isn’t exactly rocket science.
Check out the data below, and tell us what you think the industry can do to stem the flow of illegal downloads.
Most Pirated Movies Of 2014
1. “The Wolf of Wall Street”: 30.035 million (Paramount, Dec. 25, 2013)
2. “Frozen”: 29.919 million (Disney, Nov. 27, 2013)
3. “RoboCop”*: 29.879 million (MGM, Feb. 12, 2014; and Orion, July 17, 1987)
4. “Gravity”: 29.357 million (Warner Bros., Oct. 4, 2013)
5. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”: 27.627 million (Warner Bros., Dec. 13, 2013)
6. “Thor: The Dark World”: 25.749 million (Disney/Marvel, Nov. 8, 2013)
7. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”: 25.628 million (Disney/Marvel, April 4, 2014)
8. “The Legend of Hercules”: 25.137 million (Summit, Jan. 10, 2014)
9. “X-Men: Days of Future Past”: 24.380 million (20th Century Fox, May 23, 2014)
10. “12 Years a Slave”: 23.653 million (Fox Searchlight, Oct. 18, 2013)
11. “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”: 23.543 million (Lionsgate, Nov. 22, 2013)
12. “American Hustle”: 23.143 million (Sony/Columbia, Dec. 13, 2013)
13. “300: Rise of an Empire”: 23.096 million (Warner Bros., March 7, 2014)
14. “Transformers: Age of Extinction”: 21.65 million (Paramount, June 27, 2014)
15. “Godzilla”: 20.956 million (Warner Bros., May 16, 2014)
16. “Noah”: 20.334 million (Paramount, March 28, 2014)
17. “Divergent”: 20.312 million (Lionsgate, March 21, 2014)
18. “Edge of Tomorrow”: 20.299 million (Warner Bros., June 6, 2014)
19. “Captain Phillips”: 19.817 million (Sony/Columbia, Oct. 11, 2013)
20. “Lone Survivor”: 19.130 million (Universal, Dec. 25, 2013)
Most Pirated TV Shows Of 2014
1. “Game of Thrones”: 8,100,000
2. “The Walking Dead”: 4,800,000
3. “The Big Bang Theory”: 3,900,000
4. “How I Met Your Mother”: 3,500,000
5. “Gotham”: 3,200,000
6. “Arrow”: 2,900,000
7. “Grey’s Anatomy” 2,800,000
8. “Vikings” 2,700,000
9. “Suits” 2,500,000
10. "South Park" 2,400,000
