Step aside, Game of Thrones: we have a new winner for the most pirated show ever, and it's Amazon's Top Gear spinoff, The Grand Tour.
It seems that Jeremy Clarkson's big TV comeback after being dropped from BBC's Top Gear is a great hit, as The Grand Tour racked up record downloads that trumped even the piracy rates for the wildly popular Game of Thrones.
Most Pirated TV Show
The first episode of The Grand Tour reportedly had millions of views and the illegal downloads have spiced up the charts as well. Excited fans who don't want to pay $100 per year for Amazon Prime went down alternate routes and got pirated copies, with the first three episodes reportedly amounting to whopping downloads at record-breaking rates. As The Guardian reports, The Grand Tour is now the most illegally-downloaded TV show.
Industry analyst Muso found that the first episode of The Grand Tour drove 7.9 million illegal downloads, the second episode saw 6.4 million downloads, and the third saw 4.6 million downloads, according to the Daily Mail.
A vast share of the pirate downloads came from Britain, which accounted for 13.7 percent of all downloads. Muso estimated that the high piracy rate caused Amazon to lose roughly £3.2 million (about $4.05 million) on the first The Grand Tour episode alone.
'Game of Thrones' Dethroned
Game of Thrones has been one of the most popular shows ever, with a slew of viewers worldwide hooked to the exciting HBO series. With The Grand Tour now on the scene, however, Game of Thrones takes a back seat.
"It is the most illegally downloaded program ever," said Chris Elkins, chief commercial officer at Muso, as cited by The Guardian. "It is off the scale in terms of volume. It has overtaken every big show, including Game Of Thrones, for the totals across different platforms."
'The Grand Tour' Record Debut
Amazon's The Grand Tour reboot of Top Gear had a record-breaking launch. The first episode aired on Nov. 19 and quickly became the most watched premiere ever on Amazon Prime Video. IMDb reflects the whopping success with an overall rating of 9.4, while on Amazon the show has a rating 4.7 out of 5 stars.
The Grand Tour stars not only Jeremy Clarkson, but also Richard Hammond and James May, the two other co-presenters of BBC's critically acclaimed Top Gear.
Amazon has yet to announce official figures for the show, but all signs point to a massive hit. With Game of Thrones dethroned as the most pirated series already, The Grand Tour is shaping up as a success.
Have you watched The Grand Tour yet? If so, what do you think of it? Let us know in the comments section below.
