(ETX Daily Up) – Internet users are increasingly going to pirate sites to watch movies and series illegally. According to an American study, content piracy increased by 18% in 2022. Unheard of since 2020 and the advent of streaming platforms that helped us pass the time during confinement.
It was thought that the proliferation and success of streaming platforms, such as Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video, had solved the problem of piracy of films and television content. It would seem not, in view of a Muso study relayed by Variety. The increase in the volume of content after the pandemic, increasingly platform-exclusive releases, inflation and rising subscription prices would explain why illegal sites are experiencing a new resurgence of interest.
The study by Muso, a data company specializing in global piracy, estimates that pirate sites were visited 215 billion times in 2022 worldwide, an increase of 18% compared to 2021.
“Top Gun: Maverick” and “House of Dragon”
Among the most pirated content, television accounts for almost half of the traffic (46%), compared to 13% for films. However, it is the world of the seventh art that shows the most significant growth in terms of illegal piracy. With a jump of 38.6% in one year, pirated films exceed TV content which achieves an increase of 8.8% compared to 2021. “Pirate film and television sites allow immediate access to content, rather than having to wait for a film to be released in a certain country,” the study explains.
And among the most illegally requested content are anime series and big budget ones. such as “House of The Dragon”, broadcast on HBO and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, available on Prime Video. On the film side, blockbusters “Top Gun: Maverick” and “The Batman” have boosted illegal demand.
However, far from the clichés, consumers of pirated content still spend their money on legal content. “They turn to piracy to access content that is not available in their region or not affordable at the time, but this audience will still spend significant amounts of money on legal content when they have it. opportunity,” says the study.
Regular users
Consumption patterns have also changed. If Torrent sites, allowing to download important files, were then the most popular way to obtain content in a free but illegal way, it is now the illegal streaming sites which have taken up the torch, reported the study of Muso. According to the data collected, 57% of pirated movies were viewed through pirate streaming sites, compared to 16% through Torrent files. The difference is even more striking with TV content since 95% of these programs were watched illegally on streaming sites compared to 2% via Torrents.
This mode of consumption is obviously well established among Internet users who are fans of illegal streaming. They are now so accustomed to using such sites that they no longer need to turn to search engines to find them. Indeed, according to the data collected, only a quarter of the traffic of these illegal sites is generated via search engines, against 65% via direct traffic, as Variety pointed out.
