According to a study which looked at the most pirated games of 2011, the stats show that video game pirating may be on the decline.
TorrentFreak, who does the
annual report, found that
Crysis 2 was the most illegally downloaded game for the PC with roughly 3.92 million downloads.
Modern Warfare 3 followed closely behind, then rival Battlefield 3, however both were launched at the last part of the year, while Crysis 2 was released in March.
TorrentFreak, however, says that the number of illegal downloads, mainly of the hit titles, has slightly dropped since 2010. Signs point towards the possibility that clients such as Valve's Steam or EA's Origin, which offer quick and easy access to downloads for fair prices, could be to thank.
Steam's game and player statistic page showed that it reached
4.7+ million concurent users this week. which could be a positive in the fight against piracy, as it shows more people are turning to clients of the like for their games. However, it is still unclear if there is a direct link between the two.
Here is the list of the most pirated games of 2011:
PC Game Pirate Downloads- Crysis 2 - 3,920,000 - March 2011
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - 3,650,000 - November 2011
- Battlefield 3 - 3,510,000 - October 2011
- FIFA 12 - 3,390,000 - September 2011
- Portal 2 - 3,240,000 - April 2011
Wii Game Pirate Downloads
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 - 1,280,000 - May 2010
- Mario Sports Mix - 1,090,000 - February 2011
- Xenoblade Chronicles - 950,000 - August 2011 (EU)
- Lego Pirate of the Caribbean - 870,000 - May 2011
- FIFA 12 - 860,000 - September 2011
Xbox 360 Game Pirate Downloads
- Gears of War 3 - 890,000 - September 2011
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - 830,000 - November 2011
- Battlefield 3 - 760,000 - October 2011
- Forza Motorsports 4 - 720,000 - October 2011
- Kinect Sports: Season Two - 690,000 - October 2011
