And the most-pirated games of last year were...

January 5th, 2011

Of the three most-pirated platforms, pirated PC games were shared on the black market at more than tripple the rate of Wii and Xbox 360 games, according to torrent tracker TorrentFreak.

Below are the most pirated PC games of 2010:

  1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (4,270,000 downloads)
  2. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (3,960,000)
  3. Mafia 2 (3,550,000)
  4. Mass Effect 2 (3,240,000)
  5. Starcraft II (3,120,000)
Since torrents are sourced on computers, it's no surprise that PC files account for the majority of total game piracy. But that hasn't stopped publishers from committing more resources to PC gaming, as evidenced by last year's increased support.

In fact, Ubisoft this week announced that it will no longer use the controversial "constant connection" DRM system for its games, opting instead for Steam-like validation at session start-up, this despite the ongoing piracy. 
That said, it's interesting to note how quickly and fervently Black Ops was pirated, given that it had less than two months of availability before claiming the infamous honor. 

 

 

Comments

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I've never illegally downloaded a game, and I never will? What's the point in getting it for free when you should be supporting the company providing the game?

Anything worth having is worth working hard for.

1
Posted Wednesday, January 5th, 2011    Quote This Post
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I have not pirated a PC game either, but I can understand why some people might.

If actions speak louder than words, why is the pen mightier than the sword?

2
Posted Wednesday, January 5th, 2011    Quote This Post
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I think that, with the ridiculous price cuts that steam's made to games, piracy will drop a bit. I'm kinda surprised at the amount of online multiplayer games that are pirated. I would've suspected that single-player games would be the main target of piracy.

3
Posted Wednesday, January 5th, 2011    Quote This Post
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I ceratainly do not.

Anything worth having is worth working hard for.

4
Posted Thursday, January 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
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I didn't really think that Black ops would be pirated since I think they cant play online with anyone with a fake key.

Deal With It.

5
Posted Thursday, January 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Simply because people who pirate games aren't able to obtain valid keys for online game play (at least legally that is), doesn't mean that they aren't going to be able to play online somewhere with someones privatized servers. Take for example World of Warcraft, non-Blizzard hosted servers are all over the place with at the least thousands of players typically. As long as people continue to look for free methods of game play these privatized servers will continue to grow and thrive off of their player base.

6
Posted Thursday, January 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Sever1ty said: I've never illegally downloaded a game, and I never will? What's the point in getting it for free when you should be supporting the company providing the game?


This is exactly my sentiments.

7
Posted Thursday, January 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
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hmmm...

8
Posted Thursday, January 6th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Relyte said: I would've suspected that single-player games would be the main target of piracy.


I was thinking the same thing.

New forums... Soon™

9
Posted Friday, January 7th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Dumb companies don't release demos. This is the result. Let people see if the product works. Not releasing a demo says, "my product is crap."

Also those numbers aren't even close to correct, this has been confirmed on the several sites this garbage was posted.

10
Posted Friday, January 7th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Ok i must say this. As for the past 2 years, i am leaning towards Free-to-Play MMOs. Why ? Have in mind that my dad is unemployed, i am a student, and my mom gets like $200 per month ?? Yes our life standard in Macedonia,FYRO sucks, and therefore i simply can't afford 30-50 USD for a game. If i could i would, gladly would. In the past i have bought several games, but still i would want to try out the game first before i buy it, so no cash is spent in vain. And it's not just me, that is in situation like there. There thousands upon thousands of people around the world that think the same way as me. And while im enjoying several f2p MMOs, they might resolve to downloading pirated copies of the games.

11
Posted Friday, January 7th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Wow, out of those 5 games the most-pirated games are mostly multiplayers? Are there storyline that good? I was thinking that multiplayer games would be the least pirated because they are more fun playing it online.

Sup

12
Posted Saturday, January 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
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sad all those people illegally downloading

Why not JuSt EaT aN aPpLe

13
Posted Saturday, January 8th, 2011    Quote This Post
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some dudes cant buy the games, like in Brazil, some games so fucken expensive,
thats why people download pirate games.

\,,/

14
Posted Sunday, January 9th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Once and for all I'll try to answer to all your questions...
.
Q: Wtf? Online games pirated? Is single player that good?
A: No, it isn't, because the games are focused for online gaming, for the same reason... (games with good single player tend to be more cracked)...
.
Q: Then why people crack these games is single player sucks?
A: As Apples_mmmmmmmm said there are cracked servers that allow people to play online for free... I'll talk you now about my case with MW2...:
.
I've been given MW2 as a birthday gift, and I completed single player on the same day I installed it (medium difficulty). I went online and I loved it...
At about 500 hours of game played, a dude shows up with a hacked server he's hosting (official MW2) having jump hacks and stuff like that... I was very curious since this hack wasn't meant to give players an edge/unfair advantage, but some more fun! So I did my research and found a way to host my hacked servers... One week later I was banned.
One week after the ban I re-bought MW2 for sale by 20$ and continued playing it...
After about 5 months, some of my clan mates talked to me about a much better MW2 called alter IW.net... And I was like... wtf?
Guess what, alteriw.net is a cracked MW2 server which is indeed way better than the official MW2.
.
Q: Why is AlterIW.net better than the official IW.net?
A: Well, first of all, almost no hackers, while on official has a hacker in 80% of the games you join (I'm not kidding/...). You can choose your own server like if you were playing Counter-Strike: Source or any other source game like TF2... The con of all of this is that not everyone can join another one's party (but you can easily connect to the same server).
.
Q: But you're still playing a cracked MW2! You suck!
A: Do I? Really? I payed for the game TWICE, and I still prefer to play the free one because it's better! I payed for the stupid game, now let me play whenever I want to!
.
Q: But all these games are so expensive... Wtf? How did you buy MW2 for 20$?
A: Limited time promotion @ www.g2play.net they do awesome cut prices and they give you a Steam key that you activate on Steam (yes, everything's legal). I've bought 5 games there so far and absolutely no problems until now.
.
Q: How do you know all of this? (couldn't remember of any other Q you might have)
A: Well, I know A LOT of people from A LOT of different games, and I have like 50 games installed on my computer (yes, I've bought/payed for 96% of those games) so as you might guess this is an amazing way of getting knowledge...
.
Q: But do you talk to thousands of people every day?
A: Of course not, just a few duzens, but I have signed like at least 12 newsletters so I try to be always up-to-date...
.
Q: Holy crap! 12 newsletters? And your inbox????
A: Yes... If I don't go to my inbox for more than 3 days but gets to 2 pages (I use hotmail.com to manage my emails)...
.
Q: But isn't that all just spam?
A: No, I delete+report all spam I get to my inbox/junk folder, and I'm ALWAYS logged in on hotmail.com and I check it whenever I'm pausing to do something, so I have new emails like every hour or less...
.
Q: After all of this, do you support piracy or not?
A: I can't say I do, or I don't... I agree to people who crack the single player to try the game a little bit, then actually pay the full game to be able to play on the official online servers.
.
Q: But didn't you say the official sucks?
A: Yea I did, but this is a rare example, and even if I didn't pay for MW2, I would've wanted to try the official one first, and only after that, the cracked which is better... I always prioritize trying the official first, to know how it's supposed to look/feel like...
.
Q: Do you have a life?
A: Yea, but I get bored easily... Studying all the time gets your brain in overload o_O
.
Q: How old are you? I mean... wtf?
A: Born in 1991, now do the math... As you might guess, I have a lot to study every day, but I'm always up-to-date with my contacts/email... You just need an organized life ;)
.
.
And that is all :)
.
Later,
Chinoman10.

I'll think of something. . .

15
Posted Sunday, January 9th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Games Started to be pirated mostly when they took the ability to rent a game away from the PC gamer... I personally blame the greedy development and publishers for the amount of piracy, just like music and movies, had they opted to use advertising on a webpage as a means to pay for the cost of game and let people download it for free they would have made just as much money if not more the costs to develop the game and still make a nice profit.

End of Rant
-Slackin

Knowledge is Power

16
Posted Monday, January 10th, 2011    Quote This Post
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I can understand why people have illegal downloaded games. WHICH game costs 50€ WTF (in Germany all new games cost between 50-60€...). It is just too much.
And that's why I don't have new games. I always wait till the games are down to 20-30€ and than buy them, because I don't accept to give 50€ for a game. And I will never buy such a game. And that's why I can understand people who download this games.
But on the other hand, I can't understand them. For me are multiplayer games fun. I like to play a tournament against other people to look who is better.
And that's why I prefer to play f2p MMOs, like LoL...

17
Posted Monday, January 10th, 2011    Quote This Post
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MacCc said: I can understand why people have illegal downloaded games. WHICH game costs 50€ WTF (in Germany all new games cost between 50-60€...). It is just too much.
And that's why I don't have new games. I always wait till the games are down to 20-30€ and than buy them, because I don't accept to give 50€ for a game. And I will never buy such a game. And that's why I can understand people who download this games.
But on the other hand, I can't understand them. For me are multiplayer games fun. I like to play a tournament against other people to look who is better.
And that's why I prefer to play f2p MMOs, like LoL...


Wait... LoL...MMO? What am I missing here?...
.
Later,
Chinoman10.

I'll think of something. . .

18
Posted Tuesday, January 11th, 2011    Quote This Post
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It's sad for Alan Wake on Xbox 360.

19
Posted Tuesday, January 11th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Dartharion said: Ok i must say this. As for the past 2 years, i am leaning towards Free-to-Play MMOs. Why ? Have in mind that my dad is unemployed, i am a student, and my mom gets like $200 per month ?? Yes our life standard in Macedonia,FYRO sucks, and therefore i simply can't afford 30-50 USD for a game. If i could i would, gladly would. In the past i have bought several games, but still i would want to try out the game first before i buy it, so no cash is spent in vain. And it's not just me, that is in situation like there. There thousands upon thousands of people around the world that think the same way as me. And while im enjoying several f2p MMOs, they might resolve to downloading pirated copies of the games.


No offense, but you should be focusing on school and getting a job if that's your situation, not games...

Sentaul

20
Posted Wednesday, January 12th, 2011    Quote This Post
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wow...

21
Posted Friday, January 14th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Looks like there's 4,270,000 disapointed torrenters out there.

22
Posted Friday, January 14th, 2011    Quote This Post
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if you also look, COD Black ops is one of the most hacked games that have come out recently. each and every day I log into Black ops I atleast find one or two people that look very questionable into walling.

23
Posted Sunday, January 16th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Sever1ty said: I've never illegally downloaded a game, and I never will? What's the point in getting it for free when you should be supporting the company providing the game?


Because some companies either:
a) Don't deserve the money for their game
b) The game is insanely overpriced for the value
c) The company already have a lot of money and +/- additional sale won't hurt them

The only except is indie games... I would never pirate and indie game

Nothing to see here, move along

24
Posted Sunday, January 16th, 2011    Quote This Post
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Some of those games had huge price drops and there is no reason for me to pirate when BF:BC2 costs $7, ME2 cost $10, and Mafia 2 costs $10. I buy them during deals so there is no loss for me.

25
Posted Monday, January 17th, 2011    Quote This Post
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