Piracy download chart.

Gazz · 03-06-2008, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Something I’ve recently taken to doing is keeping one eye on the big torrent sites, just to see what’s topping their download lists. I do so because it’s illuminating to compare what people are willing to take differs from what people are willing to pay for. However, I thought it’ll be an interesting exercise to be a little more rigorous than that. So, hitting the Mininova, I totaled all the separate torrents for each popular game and worked out a chart. This is a snapshot of PC gaming piracy, on a single torrent site, on a single day.

Top 10’s here. The rest of the chart, plus analysis and my methodology beneath the cut.

1) Assassin’s Creed - 25734
2) Frontlines: Fuel of War – 12688
3) Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat - 8792
4) Dark Messiah of Might and Magic - 8402
5) Lost: Via Domus - 5883
6) Turning Point: Fall of Liberty - 5183
7) Sims 2 - 4026
8 ) The Club - 3672
9) Bioshock - 3489
10) The Witcher - 3121

11) Need for Speed ProStreet - 3061
12) Crysis - 2847
13) Conflict: Denied Ops – 2085
14) Neverwinter Nights 2 - 1893
15) Hellgate: London – 1750
16) World in Conflict – 1531
17) Stranglehold - 1459
18) The Orange Box - 1341
19) Age of Empires - 1099
20) Flat Out 2 - 1074

Methodology first. The numbers are total leechers. That is, number of people who are downloading from a torrent right now. Many of these - and the ones with the highest scores - have multiple torrents, which means it’s possible that trying multiples at once to see which one gives the game first. However, since I’ve only added up the torrents from the PC games sections first page - smaller torrents on the second page with less than 293 leechers have been omitted. Also, these are only torrents on Mininova. It’s the largest torrent site, but there’s many, many more. Finally, I’ve counted bundled packs - where the Add ons are added to a torrent - as a single game for simplicity.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Pay tithes to Horace on the way out Blog Archive The Yarr-ts: Piracy Snapshot 5.3.2008

I am aware that even this chart has it's calculation flaws, but its the first trying to come up with honest numbers. It deserves credit for that, there are enough anti piracy agencies trying to distort figures on this and the supposed impact on the gaming industry. I really want to know if the high prices of software are as necessary as companies make them out to be and back up my claims when I make them with even more evidence then the overwhelming stack there already is. Remarkable that Stranglehold and even Neverwinter nights 2 are in that list. Seeing how piracy can be compared to sales is extremely interesting, it's impact seems less then I thought.

interman · 03-06-2008, 08:34 AM

Nice list. Would be interesting to know how many of these guys would actually buy the games if there weren't any ways of downloading them.

BuffaloChips · 03-06-2008, 08:58 AM

Well, sometimes it's a matter of pricing. Once the price on the game drops, they might actually BUY the thing.

hiv · 03-06-2008, 10:11 AM

would be nice to have this done regularly and out of top 10 torrent sites, although I assume seeder will be accounted over and over?

Gazz · 03-06-2008, 11:21 AM

No, they just counted the number of leechers. I don't believe that stopping downloading will stop piracy. It will just increase the popularity of warez dvd's like it used to be before broadband was common.

Piracy is even allowed to a certain extent by Microsoft. They could completely lock down Windows so it would be impossible to copy, but that would just mean that those pirates would jump ship and start using Linux. With so many people who are able to follow basic instructions to get an pirated os running, switching to Linux the damage would be way bigger then the current damage done to MS now.

[SR]Caveman · 03-06-2008, 02:08 PM

Well you know I have to chime in on this one...

Charts are all fine and good but I don't think this one is really conveying much of anything.

1. Take Assassins Creed: Released on consoles Nov 13, to be released on PC April 8th. So what does this chart tell you specifically about piracy when it comes to this game. Not much at all. These 25k folks are latecomers to the party. A better indication would be to track downloads from the beginning. Or at least look at the total number of leechers in the torrents that have been around for a long time. The majority of leechers come in the beginning, not months later.

2. Mininova ain't that big. I know of a few big players that I would choose over this but I won't name names for obvious reasons.

I'd like to see a new chart that has a more encompassing view of these kinds of figures. Or at least one that shows games on the day that they first appear as torrents (especially on a day when a AAA title appears).

Edit: Wait a sec... He says: "However, since I’ve only added up the torrents from the PC games sections first page". How the heck can Assassins Creed be on the PC page if it is not out yet on PC...

Gazz · 03-06-2008, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SR]Caveman

Well you know I have to chime in on this one...

Charts are all fine and good but I don't think this one is really conveying much of anything.

1. Take Assassins Creed: Released on consoles Nov 13, to be released on PC April 8th. So what does this chart tell you specifically about piracy when it comes to this game. Not much at all. These 25k folks are latecomers to the party. A better indication would be to track downloads from the beginning. Or at least look at the total number of leechers in the torrents that have been around for a long time. The majority of leechers come in the beginning, not months later.

2. Mininova ain't that big. I know of a few big players that I would choose over this but I won't name names for obvious reasons.

I'd like to see a new chart that has a more encompassing view of these kinds of figures. Or at least one that shows games on the day that they first appear as torrents (especially on a day when a AAA title appears).

Edit: Wait a sec... He says: "However, since I’ve only added up the torrents from the PC games sections first page". How the heck can Assassins Creed be on the PC page if it is not out yet on PC...

1.I checked that. Seems they got their hands on some pre alpha version of Assassins Creed for PC. Supposed to be buggy as hell, the pc version that is.

2. Sure there are bigger players and they haven't even included usenet or programs like limewire and stuff. Still, it's nice to see someone trying to bring more insight in this issue.

Magus · 03-06-2008, 07:55 PM

Well it's a bit too late to track public torrents, 50% of those users are from fake trackers. Also they forgot private torrent sites, news groups, rapidshare/megaupload links, FXP sites, Sitescenes (last 2 are near impossible to track, so tough luck)

Resolver1 · 03-06-2008, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [SR]Caveman

Well you know I have to chime in on this one...

Charts are all fine and good but I don't think this one is really conveying much of anything.

1. Take Assassins Creed: Released on consoles Nov 13, to be released on PC April 8th. So what does this chart tell you specifically about piracy when it comes to this game. Not much at all. These 25k folks are latecomers to the party. A better indication would be to track downloads from the beginning. Or at least look at the total number of leechers in the torrents that have been around for a long time. The majority of leechers come in the beginning, not months later.

2. Mininova ain't that big. I know of a few big players that I would choose over this but I won't name names for obvious reasons.

I'd like to see a new chart that has a more encompassing view of these kinds of figures. Or at least one that shows games on the day that they first appear as torrents (especially on a day when a AAA title appears).

Edit: Wait a sec... He says: "However, since I’ve only added up the torrents from the PC games sections first page". How the heck can Assassins Creed be on the PC page if it is not out yet on PC...

1. Not really. Statistically you have to take into account the possibility that those people don't own consoles, have a history of downloading games, and pretty much PC only. 25 thousand is still 25 thousand no matter if console version exist.

2. ThePirateBay? Isohunt? TorrentSpy? Even if Mininova is not the big player as a torrent site, those numbers speak for themselves.
Welcome to the world of piracy, Stalker builds were leaked also.

[SR]Caveman · 03-07-2008, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gazz

1.I checked that. Seems they got their hands on some pre alpha version of Assassins Creed for PC. Supposed to be buggy as hell, the pc version that is.

2. Sure there are bigger players and they haven't even included usenet or programs like limewire and stuff. Still, it's nice to see someone trying to bring more insight in this issue.

Pre-alpha? I haven't heard anything about that. Got a link to a news article. Generally news like this doesn't go unnoticed. I don't think it would be wise to post the link to the torrent, of course.

As for insight, my point is that it doesn't really offer any insight. These figures don't really illustrate anything. It says nothing at all about what was taken and by how many people. Something that you and others have pointed out here. Although it still wouldn't be totally accurate, a list that is based on the total number of leechers for a given game would be better. Then you could start talking about "how some people try multple torrents for x and y reasons" and all that other stuff.

Edit: Well here it is:

Quarter To Three Forums - View Single Post - Assassin's Creed for the pc