The Walking Dead Piracy Is Increasing

The season premiere of The Walking Dead was one of the most viewed episodes in cable television history. In the United States alone, 17 million people tuned in to watch the episode.

In the 18-49 year-old demographic, the most highly sought after group in TV, drew an impressive 8.4 rating.

While these numbers are monumental, The Walking Dead also saw an enormous spike in illegal downloads of the episde.

In addition to the millions of viewers who watched on Sunday, over 600,000 people downloaded the episode illegally. In comparison, the season six premiere garnered almost 570,000 illegal downloads.

Another change from last season’s piracy numbers is where the US ranked on the list of top downloading countries. The United States had the most illegal downloads last year, but Brazil came in and grabbed the top spot in season seven.

175,724 users in Brazil downloaded the episode, followed by 153,729 in France, and 150,582 in the US. It’s also worth mentioning that all of these numbers aren’t the downloads since Sunday’s episode, just the total downloads within the first 24 hours.

These numbers were tallied by Tecxipio, a German-based company that tracks the activity of piracy and illegally downloaded material.

Luckily, these huge numbers didn’t affect The Walking Dead‘s viewership at all. The episode was easily the most viewed of the series and continues to receive positive reviews from most critics. The show has already been renewed for an eighth season, so the downloads will have no bearing on the future of the show.

The Walking Dead returns on Sunday, October 30 at 9pm ET on AMC.

Source: Variety