House of the Dragon is the series that people have downloaded most illegallyin 2022. The Game of Thrones spin-off was widely announced and launched by HBOMax and remains one of the streaming service’s most talked about series.However, not everyone has legally followed the adventures of the Targaryens.The 6 euros that HBO Max costs per month was too much for some, asTorrentfreak’s figures have shown.
House of the Dragon
2022 was the year when there was a great fantasy war between two streamingservices. HBO Max had House of the Dragon, Amazon Prime Video had The Rings ofPower, a prequel to the Lord of the Rings stories we know from the movies. Interms of quality, the series turned out to be equal, but it has now beenannounced that it was really a win for HBO Max in terms of illegal downloads.Although, you may wonder whether you can speak of a winner when downloadingillegally. It has lost a lot of revenue because of it.
In 2020 it was The Mandalorian from Disney + that was most pirated and in 2021it was also Disney + series, namely WandaVision. However, in the years beforeit was always Game of Thrones, so it is not entirely surprising that it is nowanother Game of Thrones production that is popular among illegal downloaders.On the other hand, Disney + still has a lot in it, the top 10 most illegallydownloaded series of 2022.
Most illegally downloaded series in 2022
These are the series most illegally downloaded in 2022:
- House of the Dragon (HBO) 2. The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime Video) 3. The Boys (Amazon Prime Video) 4. Moon Knight (Disney+) 5. Halo (Paramount+) 6. Obi Wan Kenobi (Disney+) 7. The Book of Boba Fett (Disney+) 8. Stranger Things (Netflix) 9. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney+) 10. Andor (Disney+)
It should be clear: no matter how much money you have as a streaming service,you cannot escape the pirates. Especially in a world where there are now somany streaming services that people can now just spend 100 euros per month,they want to subscribe to all streaming services. On the other hand, manystreaming services make it easy to cancel: you can often do so every month.
Streaming services in 2023
But if, as we saw with the introduction of HBO Max and SkyShowtime, you getdeals that give you a 50 percent discount for the rest of your life, unlessyou cancel, then that cancellation becomes a bit less attractive. Smart of thestreaming service, but this could potentially encourage people to downloadillegally more often or share accounts with others more often, which Netflix,for example, has recently been quite against – as long as it does not see anyextra money from this.
Although it is doubtful if your series is in the top 10 illegally downloadedseries of 2022, on the other hand it also says something about the popularityof your series. People want to see it and therefore download it illegally. Inthat respect, Amazon Prime Video is a bit of a loser, especially since it’sthe most expensive series ever made (it cost $10 billion to make). On theother hand, second place is not bad at all. Moreover, Game of Thrones hastraditionally been a much downloaded series, partly because HBO used to not beso easy to watch outside the United States.
We’re curious to see which 2023 series will top the list. We expect the warbetween streaming services to rage a little more this year, and that meansservices will have to do everything they can to create content that is wanted.