Piracy is on the rise, according to UK study
More people continue to turn to piracy, a trend that has been growing since 2020, according to piracy tracker MUSO. With the advent of more streaming services than ever, online media consumers are pirating dramatically more, especially when it comes to film and publishing. Piracy is on the rise in all categories, which include TV, film, publishing, music, and software, with an increase of 20% over last year. Film piracy is up by a whopping 47%, with publishing-related piracy up by almost 40%, while TV and software both went up by about 10% each. Piracy of music saw the lowest growth, of less than 5%, but an increase nonetheless.
MUSO measured a variety of statistics, comparing illegal streaming sites versus illegal download sites. Overall, 54% of all piracy-related traffic goes toward streaming sites, while the rest is to torrent and download sites. A whopping 95.1% of pirated TV content is streamed, rather than downloaded, while the split is more even when it comes to film or music. According to the numbers, over 60% of traffic is direct, and only 28% comes from Google, or other search engine results. Most piracy occurs in the United States which has a moderate lead over the rest of the world, with Russia, India, and China following behind.
Prior to 2020, piracy traffic did not have such large growths, and in the 2010s, even saw a decline in most countries.
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