Superhero projects were, perhaps predictably, the most pirated movies and TV shows in 2021. But new data reveals that it was actually a monster film that was the most pirated movie of the year: "Godzilla vs Kong."
A new report released by tech firm Akamai on Wednesday put the Warner Bros. monster mash-up on top, followed by "Zack Snyder's Justice League" and "Black Widow" respectively. Two other super projects made the list, with James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" landing in the number six spot, and "Wonder Woman 1984" squeaking in at number eight.
Warner Bros.' entire 2021 slate was released on HBO Max simultaneous with their theatrical release, but only in the U.S., which is likely why so many of those titles showed up on this list. Indeed, the WB films "Godzilla vs. Kong," "The Suicide Squad," "WW84" and "Mortal Kombat" were all released on streaming in the U.S. only, and as a result became heavily pirated.
"Zack Snyder's Justice League" was an HBO Max exclusive, and was not released in theaters.
Meanwhile, Disney's presence on the list stems from a similar lack of wide streaming accessibility. "Black Widow," "Cruella" and "Jungle Cruise" were all released simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+, though each title was part of the streamer's Premiere Access, requiring viewers to pay a $29.99 fee.
"Raya and the Last Dragon" was the only project on the list available free of upcharge on Disney+ on the day of its release, and it was the ninth most pirated film, just above "Jungle Cruise."
On the TV side of things, Disney reigned a bit more, with "Loki" and "WandaVision" taking the top two spots respectively, and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" coming in at number four.
Late last year, TorrentFreak released its own list of the most pirated TV shows, which similarly had "WandaVision" and "Loki" in the top two spots (though flipped from Akamai's ranking) and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" coming in at number four.
You can check out the full lists from Akamai below, showing the most pirated projects from January to September.
According to the firm, "For this report, Akamai looked at the global piracy by title data, which includes all genres, all titles, all production companies, television, and film, as well as streaming and torrent data. According to MUSO, between January and September 2021, the global piracy demand reached 3.7 billion. This figure is a measurement of a demand for pirated content, counted by visits to websites offering access to movies or television shows, eitherdirectly through a browser or mobile application, as well as torrent downloads. Essentially, this metric coversunlicensed streams and downloads."
Most Pirated TV Shows of 2021