For years now, the #1 most pirated TV show in the world has been HBO’s Game of Thrones, but the bloody Fantasy series has just lost its reign as King of the Pirates, and it’s been dethroned by a show from Amazon of all places.
Game of Thrones was downloaded illegally a total of 14.5 million times in 2015, but this new show has already seen a record 18.9 million illegal downloads, and that’s for only THREE EPISODES. Thus far there have been 7.9, 6.4, and 4.6 million illegal bittorrent downloads for episodes 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
So what is this unprecedented show that took down Game of Thrones? Amazon’sThe Grand Tour stars former Top Gear hosts James May, Richard Hammond, and Jeremy Clarkson, and The Grand Tour (Get Season 1 Here on Amazon</strong) has become an instant overnight worldwide phenomenon.
As reported on The Verge, piracy market data analysts estimate that Amazon lost an estimated $4.05 million on the first episode in just Great Britain alone, and Britain only accounts for 13.7% of the global piracy market…
Again, that’s just for episode 1, and for the most lost on the Great Britain market. Extrapolating to the global pirate population it’s conceivable that Amazon might lose somewhere upwards of $100 million to piracy on this show alone.
I haven’t watched The Grand Tour yet on Amazon, but I think after seeing the massive interested in this show all across the globe I’ll have to start watching it tonight so that I can see what the rest of the world is getting in on and that I know nothing about.
(h/t TheVerge)