A 2020 retrospective would not be complete without a look at the year's most popular pirated television shows. TorrentFreak has released its list of shows that were illegally downloaded the most this year, and the top spot goes to The Mandalorian, a position previously held for years by Game of Thrones. Now that Game of Thrones has finally concluded, however, Disney+'s flagship Star Wars series has catapulted to the top of the list, after coming it at number three last year.
Rounding out the top three were The Boys at number two and Westworld in third place, both newcomers to the list. Star Trek: Picard and The Outsider, which took the number five and number eight slots, respectively, are also new to the list this year. On the other hand, the rest of the list includes repeats from 2019. Vikings kept its spot at number four, while Rick and Morty made the jump to number six this year from eight in 2019. And The Walking Dead dropped a spot to number seven from six last year.
In the final spots on the list were Arrow and The Flash in the ninth and 10th positions, respectfully. These entries are especially surprising given the two series are available to stream for free on the CW app and website the day after they air on the basic-cable network. Yet, despite the free access, not only did these shows make the list in 2020, they were also on it last year, when The Flash held the seventh spot and Arrow the tenth. However 2020 marked the final season of Arrow so this will likely be its last year on the list.
TorrentFreak observes that the list's top three shows "how fragmented the online entertainment industry has become," noting that one would need three separate subscriptions to different streaming services and premium cable channels to legally watch all three shows. With so many different subscriptions required to access various TV series, the average viewer may not be able to pay for them all.
This could partially be contributing to the illegal streaming problem, as the lack of access to every subscription service could lead some individuals to torrent the shows they do not have access to, or to give up entirely and pirate everything. Either way, this list demonstrates that many popular shows have high streaming numbers both through legal and illegal methods.
TorrentFreak points out that BitTorrent only makes up a fraction of online piracy so the data it used to create its list is only based on a slice of illegal downloads. Despite this, the information speaks to the current consumption of popular television. This list provides evidence for which shows were considered must-sees by consumers this year. It not only provides another metric of the popularity of certain series, but highlights how the increased number of subscription platforms and premium channels has impacted illegal streaming.