‘Game of Thrones’ No Longer Crowned the Most Illegally Downloaded Series

HBO has been dethroned… at least when it comes to piracy. For the past four years, Game of Thrones has held the dubious honor of being the most illegally downloaded show on television. But The Grand Tour has just surpassed the fantasy epic to become “the most illegally downloaded programme in history.”

MUSO, a data analyst group that studies piracy, published a new report that reveals the opening three episodes of The Grand Tour’s first season have been downloaded nearly 19 million times. To put that in perspective according to MUSO’s 2015 report, Game Of Thrones’ Season Five finale was downloaded roughly 14.4 million times. Compare that to the 8.1 million who tuned in to view the episode as it aired, and that’s over 6 million more downloads than viewers! We can’t yet compare this to The Grand Tour’s total viewership as Amazon has not published their numbers, merely stating that “millions” tuned in to the premiere, and that it broke Amazon’s premiere viewership record previously set by The Man In The High Castle.

In 2015, The Walking Dead came was the second most illegally downloaded with 6.9 million downloads, The Big Bang Theory came in third with 4.4 million, and The CW series Arrow and The Flash rounded out the Top 5.

But in 2016, The Grand Tour has got them all beat in what MUSO’s CCO calls, “off the scale in terms of volume.” Hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May were formerly presenters of the popular British production Top Gear, until Clarkson was fired by the BBC for an “unprovoked physical and verbal attack.” Amazon had hoped to attract more UK subscribers to their Prime streaming service as the country makes up only an estimated 2 million of their 63 million worldwide subscribers.

The new three-season production cost Amazon $160 million, a record-setting price tag, and they poured $3.4 million into this opening scene. Because online pirates have been able to skirt the $99 per year Prime subscription fee, MUSO estimates Amazon may have lost upwards of $4 million in the UK alone.

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Tell us what you think! Have you checked out The Grand Tour, and did you watch it the legal way? What’s your take on online piracy? Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.