'The Walking Dead' Season 8 Premiere Drops In Number Of Illegal Downloads

Not only did The Walking Dead slide to a five year low in ratings in its eighth season premiere, the episode also saw a steep decline in the number of illegal downloads.

The number of downloads of The Walking Dead Season Eight premiere was 42% lower than that of The Walking Dead Season 7 premiere, based on the numbers one day after the each episode's initial broadcast, according to piracy-tracking firm Tecxipio.

Fans may think that a drop in piracy would be welcome news for AMC and those working on The Walking Dead, but there is the fear that this drop in piracy is a symptom of the show's declining popularity.

The Walking Dead Season Eight premiere episode, "Mercy," was downloaded illegally by 774,685 users worldwide. By comparison, The Walking Dead Season Seven premiere episode, "The Day Will Come When You Won't Be," was downloaded by 1.33 million users.

It should be noted that The Walking Dead Season Seven premiere resolved a much talked about cliffhanger from The Walking Dead Season Six finale, which may be throwing off the comparison.

Another factor that may be throwing off Tecxipio's analysis is that the firm only measured peer-to-peer sharing via BitTorrent, ignoring streaming piracy, which makes up a growing percentage of all online piracy.

Fox Networks Group, the international distributor for The Walking Dead, has also been attempting to combat online piracy by releasing the episode in 125 countries within 24 hours of its US debut on AMC, which may partly explain why Brazil, the country with the second-highest number of The Walking Dead pirates next to the United States, saw a 50 percent decline in piracy from Season 7 to Season 8.

One final factor that may contribute to the drop in piracy is AMC's increased efforts to track leaks using digital watermarks.

While piracy may be down, The Walking Dead is still a major force in social media. It was the most talked about non-sports show on social media during the week leading up to the premiere, registering 1.51 million unique users and 2.54 million intersections.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

[h/t] Variety