Here are the most pirated movies and TV shows of 2012

While 2012 will be known for its mega-popular YouTube videos and other big pop-culture phenoms, the media that people pirated tells yet another story about the year.

Torrent watchdog TorrentFreak graciously collected the data on the most pirated films this year. The list includes all versions of the film, including those that were recorded by camcorders in theaters. Whether these downloads affect the total theatrical grosses for films isn’t clear, but the movie industry clearly believes they do.

The most pirated movie of the year with 8.7 million illegal downloads was Project X, a movie about high school seniors who throw a wild birthday party that spirals out of control. In second place was the much better known Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol with 8.5 million downloads.

Here’s the list of most pirated movies of 2012:

1. Project X
2. Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol
3. The Dark Knight Rises
4. The Avengers
5. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
6. 21 Jump Street
7. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
8. The Dictator
9. Ice Age: Continental Drift
10. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

TorrentFreak also recently compiled a list of the most pirated TV shows of the year. The list measures which TV show had a single episode downloaded the most.

Not surprisingly, HBO’s Game of Thrones topped the list with 4.3 million downloads for a single episode. The fantasy series has been quite popular, but it attracts downloads because people don’t want to pay for HBO or don’t have cable. HBO does not offer its streaming HBO Go service as a standalone option in most parts of the world. Showtime’s Dexter came in second place and was in first place on last year’s list.

Here’s the full list of most pirated TV shows:

1. Game of Thrones
2. Dexter
3. The Big Bang Theory
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. Breaking Bad
6. The Walking Dead
7. Homeland
8. House
9. Fringe
10. Revolution

Game of Thrones screenshot via HBO