House of the Dragon is the most pirated show of 2022

Back in the day, Game of Thrones regularly topped the charts of the most pirated shows of any given year. The show ended in 2019, and other series took its place in 2020 and 2021: The Mandalorian and WandaVision, to be specific.

But in 2022, HBO debuted House of the Dragon, a prequel series set over 100 years before Game of Thrones. Not only was it a hit out of the gate, but it was good enough to keep people around through to the end. And that doesn’t just include HBO subscribers; pirates also returned to Westeros in force.

To wit, TorrentFreak just released its list of the most popular shows of 2022 on torrent sites. Take a look at the rankings below:

1. House of the Dragon
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
3. The Boys season 3
4. Moon Knight
5. Halo
6. Obi-Wan Kenobi
7. The Book of Boba Fett
8. Stranger Things season 4
9. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
10. Star Wars: Andor

The Boys, The Rings of Power and more among most pirated shows of 2022

Given how much money Amazon spent marketing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, I’m not surprised to see it in second place. As always, Marvel and Star Wars series are popular. I’m a little surprised that Stranger Things season 4 isn’t higher on the list, but we could chaulk that up to so many people having Netflix that there isn’t much need to pirate it.

And the biggest surprise of the list is probably The Boys, which aired its third season in 2022, being in the number three spot. I knew the show had a following, but didn’t know there was quite that much interest. Good for it!

As for the question of whether piracy is a good or bad thing, I’ve always been of the opinion that it’s going to happen no matter what studios try to do about it, so they might as well take it as a compliment. Congrats to all the shows that made the list!

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