Illegally downloading entertainment is nothing new. People gather music, movies and TV shows on a daily basis via the wonderful structure of the internet. The hit HBO series Game of Thrones is just another example of non-immunity to the piracy world.

Torrent Freak announced the news today, and claims over a whopping 8 million downloads of the series occurred this past year.

They crushed the competition as the runner-up was AMC's The Walking Dead with a measly 4.8 million downloads. Third place turned out to be The Big Bang Theory with 3.9 million.

This is nothing new either, as it now marks the third straight year the series has topped the charts in this category. Last June the show broke records for illegal downloading. 254,114 people were sharing the same torrent file of “The Children” episode (Season 4 Finale) simultaneously. Also, 190,701 were sharing the file at the time that 63,413 were still downloading it.

However, and to the dismay of people involved with the show, TV ratings are obviously not matching the excitement of downloads, notes CBS News. Compared to The Walking Dead which averages 17 million viewers, Game of Thrones only averages 7 million.

The number of viewers versus downloads can easily be explained as Game of Thrones resides on HBO which requires a subscription.

Image Courtesy of INFEvents.com