In 2023, there were more than 141 billion visits to pirate sites worldwide, with the United States and India being the main sources of traffic. New data released by piracy tracking company MUSO and consulting firm Kearney further shows that piracy of movies and TV shows remains dominant. The report is limited to video content, which appears to have increased globally in recent years.
Despite the wide availability of legal options, online piracy remains rampant. Every day, pirate sites receive hundreds of millions of visits.
This presents a serious problem for major content producers, including Hollywood studios, who are working hard to crack down on the most egregious sources of piracy.
141 billion views in 2023
New data released by piracy monitoring team GOVERNMENT and consulting firm Kearney suggests that piracy nonetheless remains rampant. In a report published today they reveal that there were 141 billion piracy video views worldwide in 2023, an increase of 12% from 2019.
It is not clear why the report uses such a distant comparison base. Reported visits for 2023 increased approximately 10% compared to previously published data for 2022.
The data covers more than 730,000 movies and TV titles and includes a wide variety of pirate sites. These include sites that offer software and music, but only visits to video content are counted. Traditionally, this is by far the most popular content category.
TV, movies, anime and sports
If we look at the figures, we see that film and television content is in the lead, with 65% of visits. Anime comes in second with a quarter of all video piracy views, followed distantly by live sports (9%) and live linear broadcasts (1%).
There are some regional differences in what type of content is most popular. In part, this depends on how easy or affordable it is to access legal content. In the Asia-Pacific region, for example, live sports account for 5.3% of visits to pirate sites, a figure that can reach 11.3% in the United States.
In previous years we have repeatedly mentioned that the United States is the top country when it comes to the absolute number of visits to pirate sites. There were no changes in 2023, but now there is serious competition.
India rises through the ranks
India is on track to overtake the United States as the world's most piracy nation. This is not a surprise as India is also the country with the largest population, over 1.4 billion people. However, increasing Internet penetration is equally important.
About 15 years ago, India only had about five million broadband subscribers. Today there are more than 700 million. This massive increase in access has left its mark on society and, as predictedIt turned out to be a growing market for pirates.
The 2023 report places the US and India as joint leaders, both with 11% of global video piracy views. However, the piracy rate in India has increased by 80% year on year, suggesting that it will be the sole leader next year. The top four are completed by Russia (6%) and the United Kingdom (3%), at a respectable distance.
Comparing countries without taking into account population size doesn't say much, of course. If we look at the average number of visits per capita, a new region comes to the fore.
Europe tops the relative table with 34 visits to pirate sites per capita, followed by North America with 26 visits. At 13 visits, the relative numbers are much lower in South America, dropping to "only" 5 visits per capita in the Asia-Pacific region.
Piracy as a gold mine
These figures are not exactly encouraging for the video entertainment industry. However, MUSO and Kearney emphasize that understanding why people pirate and responding appropriately can help turn some pirates into paying consumers.
โThe global increase in video content piracy is worrying. However, with a slight adjustment of perspective, it also becomes an opportunity for those media companies that can shift their focus to marketing pirated users and plug the revenue leak,โ says Kearney's Christophe Firth.
MUSO founder and CEO Andy Chatterley adds that piracy is more of a problem today than ever, so understanding why people hack is key.
โMUSO data is driving real transformation for entertainment companies to truly understand how their content can be better positioned, better marketed and better suited to a broad audience currently dissatisfied with legal offerings,โ says Chatterley.
According to the press release, legal subscription services can generate additional billions if they convert just a fraction of these pirates. This message is partly out of self-interest, as MUSO offers piracy insights and solutions as a commercial service.
Finally, it is worth highlighting that the figures reported above only apply to regular visits to pirate sites. This means that a large and growing part of the piracy ecosystem, including dedicated piracy apps and illegal IPTV offerings, are not included.
