'Game of Thrones' retains top spot as most pirated series

HBO series “Game of Thrones” has been crowned the most illegally downloaded TV show on the internet for the fifth consecutive year, according to TorrentFreak.

The American fantasy drama series, based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling book series “A Song of Ice and Fire”, became an international sensation when it premiered on-screen in April 2011.

At its peak, it had approximately 350,000 people actively sharing an episode across several torrents.

Although there was no new swarm record, TorrentFreak stated that, traffic-wise, the interest was roughly on par with last year, but added this could be due to the shift from torrents to streaming sites over the past months, which likely had an impact on the numbers.

Zombie series “The Walking Dead” scored second place in the pirate listing, with science-fiction western “Westworld” in third place — despite having premiered just months ago, on October 2, 2016. DC Comics series “The Flash” and “Arrow” round out the top five.