The advent and unstoppable rise of streaming was always going to lead to a significant uptick in piracy, because there aren’t a lot of people out there who are either willing or financially able to shell out for Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Apple TV and the rest on a monthly basis.
While the various on-demand platforms are happy to tout hefty viewing figures for the highest-profile originals, there’s absolutely no chance that piracy isn’t a concern internally. After all, it’s almost impossible to stop and even more difficult to police, but that’s one of the pitfalls that comes with so many streamers looking to squeeze as many customers as possible for their fee.
In fact, the pirates have gotten so bold, they’re even releasing annual Top 10s of their own. As per TorrentFreak, half of the year’s most torrented titles hail from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. WandaVision, Loki, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye account for four of the top five, with The Witcher in third.
What If…? sits in sixth ahead of Foundation, Rick and Morty, Arcane and The Wheel of Time, which outlines in no uncertain terms that fans are getting their fix of MCU content regardless of whether they’ve got a Disney Plus subscription or not.
