Piracy sites drew 216.3 billion visits in 2024, down 5.7% from the prior year, yet publishing piracy grew 4.3% to 66.4 billion visits as manga surged (MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights). The economic stakes climbed even as raw traffic dipped: the US Chamber’s Global Innovation Policy Center pegs annual US video-piracy losses at 29.2 billion to 71 billion US dollars, and Japan’s government now attributes 5.7 trillion yen, about 38 billion US dollars, in 2025 losses to anime, manga and game piracy. Live sports remains the hardest-hit live category, with 51% of fans watching pirated sport monthly despite 89% holding legitimate subscriptions (Synamedia and Ampere Analysis). And enforcement is scaling in parallel: 26.2 million live-broadcast takedown notices were filed over 18 months to mid-2025 (Grant Thornton and the Live Content Coalition). This analysis consolidates data from MUSO, Authorized Books of Japan, the US Chamber’s GIPC, Parks Associates, Synamedia and Ampere Analysis, the EUIPO, the AAPA, IFPI, Grant Thornton, ACE and MPA, Japan METI, the BSA, and 3 other primary sources.
TL;DR
- Piracy sites drew 216.3 billion visits in 2024, a 5.7% decline year over year (MUSO 2024, via TorrentFreak).
- Publishing was the only major media sector to grow, up 4.3% to 66.4 billion visits (Piracy Monitor, 2025).
- Manga accounted for about 70% of publishing piracy, or 46.57 billion visits, up roughly 347% since 2019 (Variety VIP, 2025).
- Online video piracy costs the US economy at least 29.2 billion US dollars a year, up to 71 billion (US Chamber GIPC).
- Japan’s government attributed 5.7 trillion yen, about 38 billion US dollars, in 2025 losses to anime, manga and game piracy, nearly triple 2022 (Japan METI, 2025).
- 51% of global sports fans watch pirated sport monthly, despite 89% owning a legitimate subscription (Synamedia and Ampere Analysis).
- EU internet users accessed illegal content about 10 times per month, half of it TV (EUIPO, 2024).
- Pirate IPTV users in the EU and UK rose from 13.7 million to 17.1 million, up about 25% in three years (AAPA).
- 26.2 million live-broadcast takedown notices were sent over 18 months to mid-2025, yet over 81% led to no suspension (Grant Thornton and the Live Content Coalition).
- ACE shut down Streameast, the largest illegal sports platform, drawing 1.6 billion visits across 80 domains, in September 2025 (ACE, 2025).
1. The Global Piracy Landscape
Total piracy traffic is easing but not collapsing. The 216.3 billion visits in 2024 represent a 5.7% decline from 2023, the continuation of a slow drift downward that the firm attributes to better legal availability in film, music and software. Delivery has also shifted decisively toward the browser: streaming and direct site visits now dominate, with a near even split between streaming and download methods and roughly 60% of illegal traffic arriving directly rather than via search (MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights). Geography stays concentrated in high-connectivity markets.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total visits to piracy sites, 2024 | 216.3 billion (-5.7% YoY) | MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights |
| Top source countries by share of visits | US 12.3% (~26.7B), India 8.12% (~17.6B), Russia 7.12% | MediaNama analysis, 2025 |
| Streaming vs download delivery split | Near 50/50 (download ~0.8 points lower) | MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights |
| EU illegal-content access per user | ~10 times per month | EUIPO, Online Copyright Infringement 2024 |
| EU illegal TV access per user | ~5 times per month (half of all piracy) | EUIPO, Online Copyright Infringement 2024 |
Outlier: the US, India and Russia have topped the global country rankings for several years running, reflecting audience scale and early demand rather than the world’s highest per-capita rates.
2. Publishing and Manga: The Only Sector Growing
Publishing is the standout anomaly of 2024. While every other major category shrank, publishing piracy rose 4.3% to 66.4 billion visits, and manga alone accounted for about 70% of that, or 46.57 billion visits (MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights). Growth is structural, not a blip: analysis reported by Variety shows pirated manga views up roughly 347% between 2019 and 2024, against about 26% for TV (Variety VIP, 2025). A separate Authorized Books of Japan study puts hard numbers on the leakage. For market-size context on the licensed side, see our manga statistics roundup.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Publishing piracy visits, 2024 | 66.4 billion (+4.3% YoY) | MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights |
| Manga share of publishing piracy | ~70% (46.57 billion visits) | MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights |
| Manga pirate sites analyzed (June 2025) | 914 sites, 2.85 billion monthly visits, 123 countries | ABJ, via TorrentFreak 2025 |
| Reading time on pirate manga sites | ~700 million hours (June 2025) | ABJ, via TorrentFreak 2025 |
| Estimated manga piracy loss | ~704.8 billion yen/month (~55 billion USD/year) | ABJ, via TorrentFreak 2025 |
| US manga readers using unauthorized sites | ~30% of those surveyed | ABJ, 2025 |
| Top country by manga pirate visits | Japan 390.2M (13.7%), then Indonesia and US | ABJ, via TorrentFreak 2025 |
Divergence note: loss estimates for manga vary widely by scope and method. ABJ models roughly 55 billion US dollars a year for publications, while the Japanese Parliamentary Association for Manga, Anime and Games cited nearly 7 billion US dollars in 2024 damages for manga specifically; the figures are not directly comparable.
3. Film and TV Piracy and the Economic Bill
Television is still the biggest piracy category by raw traffic, but its economic modeling is where the largest loss figures appear. TV drew 96.8 billion visits in 2024 (down 6.8%) and film 24.3 billion (down 18%). On the money side, the US Chamber’s Global Innovation Policy Center estimates online video piracy costs the US economy at least 29.2 billion US dollars a year, potentially up to 71 billion, alongside 230,000 to 560,000 lost jobs (US Chamber GIPC). Streaming has overtaken downloads as the dominant piracy vehicle. Our video streaming statistics roundup covers the licensed market these losses are measured against.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| TV piracy visits, 2024 | 96.8 billion (-6.8% YoY) | MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights |
| Film piracy visits, 2024 | 24.3 billion (-18% YoY) | TorrentFreak, 2025 |
| Annual US economy loss to video piracy | 29.2 billion to 71 billion USD | US Chamber GIPC |
| US job losses attributed to piracy | 230,000 to 560,000 per year | US Chamber GIPC |
| Pirated US movie / TV episode viewings | 26.6 billion movies; 126.7 billion TV episodes | US Chamber GIPC |
| Cumulative US streaming loss by 2027 | Over 113 billion USD (piracy rate 22% to 24.5%) | Parks Associates, 2023 |
Context: the GIPC study’s headline totals date to its 2019 report and have been contested as high by some economists, so they are best read as an upper-bound framing rather than a precise annual figure.
4. Live Sports and Illegal IPTV
Live sport is the category where piracy behavior and paying behavior overlap most. Synamedia and Ampere Analysis found 51% of sports fans watch pirated sport monthly even though 89% of them already hold a pay-TV or streaming subscription (Synamedia and Ampere Analysis, Pricing Piracy), pointing to fragmentation and cost, not lack of access, as the driver. Illegal IPTV has hardened into a paid, subscription-like market of its own, and its infrastructure increasingly overlaps with malware distribution, a risk documented in our cybersecurity statistics review.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sports fans watching pirated sport monthly | 51% (89% also own a subscription) | Synamedia and Ampere Analysis |
| Monthly sports piracy rate, US / Brazil / UK | 69% / 72% / 48% | Ampere Analysis |
| Estimated annual sports piracy loss | 28.3 billion USD to rights holders | Synamedia and Ampere Analysis |
| EU + UK pirate IPTV users | 13.7M to 17.1M (+~25% in 3 years) | AAPA |
| Annual pirate IPTV revenue in Europe | Over 1.06 billion euros; ~5 euros/month spend | AAPA |
| Legal pay-TV loss to IPTV piracy (Europe) | 3.2 billion euros | AAPA |
| Highest pirate IPTV penetration | Netherlands 8.2%; Luxembourg 7.9% | AAPA, via EUIPO |
Outlier: Ampere’s 72% monthly-piracy rate in Brazil is among the highest recorded for any market, a reminder that sports piracy tracks rights fragmentation and price more than income level.
5. Music, Software and Video Game Piracy
These three categories show what improved legal access can do, and where it still falls short. Music piracy fell 18.6% to 13.9 billion visits and software slipped 2.1% to 14.9 billion in 2024, but IFPI still finds about 29% of online music listeners use illegal or unlicensed methods, with stream ripping the most common technique and far higher among younger listeners (IFPI). Software’s global picture is harder to date because the last full BSA survey is from 2018. Streaming’s role in curbing music piracy is covered in our music streaming statistics roundup.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Music piracy visits, 2024 | 13.9 billion (-18.6% YoY) | MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights |
| Online music listeners using illegal methods | ~29% | IFPI, Engaging with Music |
| Stream ripping share (16-24 age group) | 26% overall; up to 41% among 16-24 | IFPI |
| Software piracy visits, 2024 | 14.9 billion (-2.1% YoY) | MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights |
| Global unlicensed software installation rate | 37% (46.3 billion USD value) | BSA Global Software Survey 2018 (most recent available) |
| Asia Pacific unlicensed software rate | 57% (16.4 billion USD value) | BSA Global Software Survey 2018 (most recent available) |
| Revenue impact of an early Denuvo crack | ~20% average fall in total revenue | Reimers and Herz, ScienceDirect 2024 |
| Japan anime/manga/game piracy loss, 2025 | 5.7 trillion yen (~38 billion USD), up from ~2 trillion in 2022 | Japan METI, 2025 |
Flag: the BSA’s 37% global unlicensed-software rate and 46.3 billion US dollar value are from its 2018 survey, the most recent edition; treat as directional, not current.
6. Enforcement, Takedowns and Site Seizures
Enforcement is scaling fast, but so is the gap between notices filed and content actually removed. Grant Thornton and the Live Content Coalition logged 10.8 million live-broadcast takedown notices in 2024, then 26.2 million over the 18 months to mid-2025, yet more than 81% of those notices did not result in the illegal stream being suspended (Grant Thornton, Combatting Online Piracy 2025). Set-piece seizures still land: ACE’s September 2025 takedown of Streameast removed the largest illegal sports platform in operation.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Live-broadcast takedown notices, 2024 | 10.8 million | Grant Thornton and Live Content Coalition |
| Live-broadcast takedown notices, 18 months to mid-2025 | 26.2 million | Grant Thornton and Live Content Coalition |
| Notices that led to no suspension | Over 81% | Grant Thornton and Live Content Coalition |
| Violations processed within 30 minutes | Only 6% (21% took over 2 hours) | Grant Thornton and Live Content Coalition |
| Streameast annual visits before shutdown | 1.6 billion across 80 domains | ACE, via CNN 2025 |
| Streameast raid seizures | 2 arrests; ~123,000 USD in cards; ~200,000 USD in crypto | ACE, via Fortune 2025 |
| Piracy-related domains controlled by MPA | Over 500 (early 2025) | ACE/MPA, via TroyPoint 2025 |
Context: the collapse in suspension rates, from 19% in late 2024 to 5% in the first half of 2025 per Grant Thornton, suggests pirate operators are adapting faster than the notice-and-takedown system can respond.
Summary: Digital Piracy by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total piracy site visits, 2024 | 216.3 billion (-5.7% YoY) | MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights |
| TV piracy visits, 2024 | 96.8 billion (largest category) | TorrentFreak, 2025 |
| Publishing piracy visits, 2024 | 66.4 billion (+4.3%, only sector growing) | Piracy Monitor, 2025 |
| Manga pirate visits, 2024 | 46.57 billion (~70% of publishing) | Anime Corner, 2025 |
| Manga piracy growth, 2019 to 2024 | ~347% | Variety VIP, 2025 |
| Manga pirate sites / monthly visits | 914 sites; 2.85 billion visits; 123 countries | ABJ, 2025 |
| Estimated annual manga piracy loss | ~55 billion USD | ABJ, 2025 |
| US economy loss to video piracy | 29.2 billion to 71 billion USD/year | US Chamber GIPC |
| US job losses to piracy | 230,000 to 560,000 per year | US Chamber GIPC |
| Cumulative US streaming loss by 2027 | Over 113 billion USD | Parks Associates, 2023 |
| Japan anime/manga/game piracy loss, 2025 | 5.7 trillion yen (~38 billion USD) | Japan METI, 2025 |
| Sports fans pirating monthly | 51% (89% own a subscription) | Synamedia and Ampere Analysis |
| Monthly sports piracy rate, Brazil / US | 72% / 69% | Ampere Analysis |
| Annual sports piracy loss | 28.3 billion USD | Synamedia and Ampere Analysis |
| EU + UK pirate IPTV users | 17.1 million (+~25% in 3 years) | AAPA |
| Live-broadcast takedown notices, 18 months to mid-2025 | 26.2 million (81%+ no suspension) | Grant Thornton and Live Content Coalition |
| Streameast visits before September 2025 shutdown | 1.6 billion across 80 domains | ACE, 2025 |
| EU illegal-content access per user | ~10 times per month | EUIPO, 2024 |
| Online music listeners using illegal methods | ~29% | IFPI |
| Global unlicensed software rate | 37% (most recent, 2018) | BSA Global Software Survey 2018 |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered by consolidating primary reports, surveys, court and enforcement disclosures, and datasets published mainly in 2024 through 2026, cross-referencing figures across two or more sources where possible and flagging older data explicitly.
Sources cited:
- MUSO, 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights (2025)
- Authorized Books of Japan (ABJ), 2025 manga piracy study, via TorrentFreak (2025)
- US Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center, Impacts of Digital Piracy on the U.S. Economy
- Parks Associates, streaming piracy loss forecast (2023)
- Synamedia and Ampere Analysis, Pricing Piracy / Charting Global Sports Piracy
- Ampere Analysis, sports piracy behavior survey (2025)
- EUIPO, Online Copyright Infringement in the EU (2024)
- AAPA, Illicit IPTV in Europe
- IFPI, Engaging with Music
- BSA, Global Software Survey (2018, most recent available)
- Grant Thornton and the Live Content Coalition, Combatting Online Piracy (2025)
- ACE / MPA, Streameast enforcement action (2025) and MPA Notorious Markets submission (2025)
- Japan METI, digital content piracy loss estimate (2025)
- Japanese Parliamentary Association for Manga, Anime and Games, manga damages estimate (2024)
- Reimers and Herz, revenue effects of Denuvo DRM, ScienceDirect (2024)
- Variety VIP, analysis of MUSO manga data (2025)
- Trade-press reporting on MUSO’s 2024 dataset used for corroboration: TorrentFreak, Piracy Monitor, MediaNama, and Anime Corner (2025)
Data watch: MUSO typically publishes its annual Piracy Trends and Insights in H1, so a 2025 full-year edition is expected in mid-2026. Grant Thornton and the Live Content Coalition release semiannual live-piracy updates, with the next edition due after the mid-2025 report. IFPI’s Engaging with Music and the EUIPO’s Online Copyright Infringement study both update annually. ABJ runs its manga tracking on a rolling basis. The BSA has not published a Global Software Survey since 2018.
Last updated: July 16, 2026.
We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.