"Game of Thrones," "Homeland," "The Walking Dead" and other major TV-shows were pirated extensively in 2013. Recently, TorrentFreak released a list of most pirated TV-shows in the year 2013. "Game of Thrones" topped the list followed by "Breaking Bad," and "The Walking Dead."

HBO's hit show "Game of Thrones" is the most downloaded TV-show for the second year consecutively.

The 2013 season finale of the show defeated the competition quite easily. It was downloaded 5.9 million times through BitTorrent. According to reports, more than half of the downloads happened in the very first week after the show hit the airwaves. The total number of downloads of "Game of Thrones" exceeded the number of traditional viewers in the U.S.

TorrentFreak mentioned that the "Game of Thrones" grabbed the first spot is no surprise as there are various reasons why a lot of people download TV-shows. Many blame HBO for the huge piracy of "Game of Thrones."

HBO prefers to keep the show's status as exclusive, and it is not even available on platforms like Netflix. Surprisingly, the show makers are not upset about the massive download of the show. Director David Petrarca stated that piracy helped in getting the "cultural buzz" around "Game of Thrones."

Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, revealed that piracy helped in more subscriptions for HBO. He also said that getting the title of "most pirated" is way "better than an Emmy."

However, Gale Anne Hurd, executive producer of AMC's "The Walking Dead," told Variety that these downloads are not helpful as claimed by many.

"There's a mistaken belief by many of my peers that piracy is somehow good, that viewers will develop a habit to pay for it. I'm not sure they really understand other than anecdotal evidence that their ratings go up that the people who pirate are not then going to choose legal downloads or legal viewing in the future," said Gale.

Here is the list of top ten most pirated TV-shows of 2013 with the estimated downloads:

1. "Game of Thrones" - 5,900,000

2. "Breaking Bad" - 4,200,000

3. "The Walking Dead" - 3,600,000

4. "The Big Bang Theory" - 3,400,000

5. "Dexter" - 3,100,000

6. "How I Met Your Mother" - 3,000,000

7. "Suits" - 2,600,000

8. "Homeland" - 2,400,000

9. "Vikings" - 2,300,000

10. "Arrow" - 2,200,000

Courtesy: TorrentFreak.com