Torrent Freak Lists Most Pirated Video Games of Year 2009

Earlier this week download side TorrentFreak.com listed out the top illegally pirated video games of the year 2009; from the PC, Xbox 360, and Wii gaming categories. At this point I have to say that illegally downloading and pirating retail video games is one of my personal pet peeves - it takes money away from the publisher/developer who are the ones creating these pieces of art, and on some level could affect whether or not people lose their jobs or are able to create a sequel to one of the best games of the year. Just think about how much money Infinity Ward and Activision lost on the nearly 1,000,000 sales of Modern Warfare 2 - somewhere around $60,000,000 is enough to make you stop and think about whether it's really worth it or not to download that "free" copy over the internet. Also if you are interested in seeing which blockbuster movies topped the most-illegally downloaded list click here (Star Trek won). Hopefully we will see these numbers drop a little in 2010 and if a developer is reading this I am all for you putting in more encryption software if it will save some money at the end of the day. The results are listed below.

The full figures from Torrent Freak are below:

PC Games Downloaded on BitTorrent in 2009:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- 4,100,000
• The Sims 3 -- 3,200,000
• Prototype -- 2,350,000
• Need for Speed Shift -- 2,100,000
• Street Fighter 4 -- 1,850,000

Xbox 360 Games Downloaded on BitTorrent in 2009:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- 970,000
• Street Figther 4 -- 840,000
• Prototype -- 810,000
• Dirt 2 -- 790,000
• UFC 2009 Undisputed -- 720,000

Wii Games Downloaded on BitTorrent in 2009:

• New Super Mario Bros. -- 1,150,000
• Punch-Out! -- 950,000
• Wii Sports Resort -- 920,000
• The House of the Dead: Overkill -- 860,000
• Mario Power Tennis -- 830,000

[SOURCE]