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Pirate websites drew 185.6 billion visits worldwide in 2025, a 14.2% drop from the 216.3 billion visits recorded in 2024. Traffic has now fallen two years in a row from 229 billion visits in 2023.

In this report, we compared four years of traffic data from piracy analytics company MUSO with other insights. The tables cover global piracy trends, country-level data, publishing piracy, and the damages allowed under US copyright law.

Key Takeaways

  • Pirate websites lost 30.7 billion visits between 2024 and 2025.
  • Visits have dropped two years in a row, from 229 billion in 2023 to 185.6 billion in 2025.
  • Television shows accounted for 96.8 billion visits to piracy websites in 2024.
  • The United States generated 26.7 billion visits to these sites in 2024, more than any other country.

Defining Piracy Visits: MUSO counts a visit each time someone opens a pirate site. One person who opens a site ten times adds ten visits, so the totals show traffic, not the number of people. The tables on content type, country, and publishing use 2024 figures, the most recent itemized breakdown available at the time of writing.

Global Piracy Visits by Year

Piracy traffic climbed through 2022 and 2023, then fell in both 2024 and 2025. The table below lists the yearly totals:

Year Global Visits Reported Change
2022 215 billion +18% from 2021
2023 229 billion Higher than 2022
2024 216.3 billion -5.7% from 2023
2025 185.6 billion -14.2% from 2024

Key Insights:

  • The 2025 drop is more than double the 2024 drop in percentage terms.
  • Traffic in 2025 was about 29 billion visits below the 2022 total.

Global Piracy Visits by Content Type

Television accounted for nearly 45% of all pirate site visits in 2024. Every category except publishing lost traffic. The table below shows visits by content type and the change from 2023:

Content Type 2024 Visits Change From 2023
Television 96.8 billion -6.8%
Publishing 66.4 billion +4.3%
Film 24.3 billion -18%
Software 14.9 billion -2.1%
Music 13.9 billion -18.6%
All Categories 216.3 billion -5.7%

Key Insights:

  • Anime release cycles keep television at the top of the piracy list.
  • Film visits fell 18% partly because the 2023 Hollywood strikes reduced new releases.

Pirate Site Visits by Country

The United States generated more pirate site visits than any other country in 2024. India ranked second, 9.1 billion visits behind. The table below shows the top five countries:

Rank Country 2024 Visits
1 United States 26.7 billion
2 India 17.6 billion
3 Russia Not reported
4 Indonesia Not reported
5 Vietnam Not reported

Key Insights:

  • The United States accounted for more than 12% of all pirate site traffic worldwide in 2024.
  • The United States and India alone generated 44.3 billion visits.

Publishing Piracy Growth

Publishing piracy covers pirated books, comics, and other written media, including manga (Japanese comics). Publishing was the only major category that grew in 2024, and manga fans who read chapters before official English releases fuel most of that growth. The table below breaks down the publishing figures:

Metric Figure
2023 Publishing Visits 63.6 billion
2024 Publishing Visits 66.4 billion
Year-Over-Year Growth 4.3%
Manga Share of Publishing Piracy More than 70%
Traditional Book Piracy Share About 5%
United States Publishing Visits More than 8 billion
Five-Year Category Growth More than 100%

Key Insights:

  • Publishing ranks as the second-largest piracy category behind television, with 30.7% of all 2024 visits.
  • Japan ranks fifth in publishing piracy but falls outside the top 15 for total pirate site visits.

US Statutory Damages for Copyright Infringement

Piracy creates legal exposure in the United States because the Copyright Act sets damages for each infringed work. The table below shows the tiers under 17 U.S.C. § 504(c).

Scenario Damages Per Work Condition
Standard Infringement $750–$30,000 The court sets the amount it considers just
Willful Infringement Up to $150,000 The copyright owner proves willful infringement
Innocent Infringement As low as $200 The infringer proves a lack of awareness and no reason to believe the acts infringed copyright

Key Insights:

  • The $150,000 figure is a ceiling that a court may reach only after finding willful infringement.
  • Damages apply per work infringed, so the number of works in a case determines the range.

What the Numbers Show

The decline in piracy traffic does not mean demand for pirated content has disappeared. The data shows that demand shifted between content types. Publishing grew while several other categories saw sharp declines.

The data also shows why piracy traffic needs context. A visit counts site activity, not a person, so a drop in visits does not reveal how many people stopped pirating. The same applies to legal exposure. Traffic measures how often people access pirate sites, while US copyright law sets damages based on each work someone infringes.

Taken together, the figures show a piracy market that has changed in size and content but still generates substantial traffic and legal risk.

Further Reading

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Sources

  • MUSO: Audience Demand and Content Protection Solutions for the Media and Entertainment Industry
  • DocumentaryTube: Is Piracy Really Back? Why Streaming Is Making It Tempting Again
  • Databoks: 10 Countries Most Frequently Visiting Pirated Sites in 2025, Indonesia Included
  • MUSO: What 216 Billion Visits to Piracy Sites Reveal About Global Media in 2024
  • MUSO: 2024 Piracy Trends and Insights
  • TorrentFreak: Pirate Site Visits Dip to 216 Billion a Year, But Manga Piracy is Booming
  • Screen Rant: Despite Recent Arrests and Lawsuits, Manga Piracy Is Still Booming in the U.S.
  • Statista: The Media Industries Most Affected by Piracy
  • Legal Information Institute: 17 U.S. Code § 504, Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits