At the end of the year, a look back shows which entertainment has particularly stood out. This year’s success of The Last of Us is also reflected in a questionable top position in 2023
The Last of Us series, based on the video game of the same name, won over a large audience in 2023. Even Steven Spielberg was enthusiastic about the story of a man (Pedro Pascal) who guides a girl (Bella Ramsey) through the post-apocalypse full of mushroom zombies. The popularity of the HBO production shown in Germany on WOW * goes so far that this year it even won a less coveted title among streaming providers: the most pirated series of 2023.
No series was streamed illegally as often in 2023 as The Last of Us
As Torrent Freak reports, no series was streamed illegally as often in 2023 as The Last of Us. This statistic for the horror series is based on a count of BitTorrent downloads on piracy sites. As many illegal streamers now use streaming sites instead of download sites, this is only a small proportion of the piracy landscape, but is nevertheless suitable as an extrapolation for an area that otherwise does not publish any statistics
Looking back over the last decade, Game of Thrones was often the frontrunner in video piracy. Season 7, for example, was watched illegally over a billion times. After WandaVision and The Mandalorian were the most pirated series in 2021, first place in 2022 once again went to a series from the Game of Thrones universe with House of the Dragon. With the survival horror The Last of Us, it is now once again the GoT channel HBO that is losing out because many people would rather watch illegally than take out a subscription. Here is an overview of the year 2023:
Top 10 most watched series illegally in 2023:
The Last of Us (HBO)
The Mandalorian (Disney+)
Loki (Disney+)
Star Wars: Ahsoka (Disney+)
Secret Invasion (Disney+)
Silo (AppleTV+)
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (AppleTV+)
Tulsa King (Paramoutn+)
Gen V (Amazon Prime)
Ted Lasso (AppleTV+)
Despite the sad record, this statistic is of course also a measure of the popularity of the series. In addition, the selection shows a conspicuous absence of Netflix, which suggests that Netflix users are most likely to stick to their subscription (and watch series illegally outside of it) in the oversupply of various streaming services. Or did Netflix simply not have any high-flying series in 2023?
More: This is what happens in season 2 of The Last of Us
