Game of Thrones Stars Nominated for the 2014 Emmy Awards
Cast member Peter Dinklage arrives for the season four premiere of the HBO series "Game of Thrones" in New York in this file photo from March 18, 2014. HBO's medieval thriller led all nominees with 19 as the 2014 Emmy nominations were announced July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/Files Reuters

The battle for the Iron Throne may still be raging on in Westeros, but in real life, the crown has already been claimed. HBO's fantasy series "Game Of Thrones" has been declared the most illegally downloaded or pirated TV series of 2014. This is the third year in a row that the series has earned the top spot on the list.

The series aired its fourth season from April to June of 2014, and according to TorrentFreak, the season 4 finale racked up over eight million downloads. Its live airing over HBO only gained 7.1 million viewers worldwide. Out of all the most downloaded series episodes, the "Game Of Thrones" Season 4 finale also had the most number of pirated views compared with live views. This means that its fans are more prone to securing copies of the show online than tuning in to their TV sets.

The series that comes second on the list is the zombie apocalypse drama "The Walking Dead." The most downloaded episode for this series gained 17.3 million live views but was only downloaded 4.8 million times.

Next on the list of most downloaded shows is "The Big Bang Theory," which actually topped the other two when it comes to live views. Its most viewed episode gained 18.2 million live viewers, but on the piracy side of the equation, "The Big Bang Theory" fell short. Its most popular episode was only downloaded 3.9 million times.

The top ten most downloaded TV shows are:

1. "Game of Thrones"

2. "The Walking Dead"

3. "The Big Bang Theory"

4. "How I Met Your Mother"

5. "Gotham"

6. "Arrow"

7. "Grey's Anatomy"

8. "Vikings"

9. "Suits"

10. "Southpark"

Meanwhile, even a real Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, could not help but jump into the "Game of Thrones" bandwagon. In her annual Christmas public broadcast, the Queen of England mentioned the series as she was talking about a trip she made to Northern Ireland this year. While she was in Belfast, the Queen visited some of the studios where the series was being filmed. She also made a comment about the Iron Throne, saying that it didn't look very comfortable.

TorrentFreak stated, however, that their statistics are not a definite representation of a show's popularity. They are only able to collect data on downloaded copies of TV programs, but this does not include online streaming and viewing sites nor files shared via online file hosting sites, which do not offer any public information on the download quantities.

For questions/comments regarding the article, contact the writer at ishcaparras@yahoo.com.