A few years ago, the idea of accessing thousands of movies and series under one roof for a reasonable monthly fee was revolutionary. With the arrival of platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and then Disney+, viewers found a legal and convenient alternative. This led to a historic decline in interest in pirated streaming sites worldwide. However, this golden age appears to be coming to an end. Rising subscription fees, the dispersion of content across dozens of platforms, and the weakening of the user experience are fueling this return. Consequently, it’s forcing millions of people back into a forgotten habit: consuming pirated movies and series.
Interest in pirated movies and series is high
One person who has experienced this situation most clearly is Gabriel Rindborg, a writer for The Guardian. He explains that content they once could easily find on a single platform now requires subscriptions to two, even three, different services. Rindborg emphasizes that this situation has become unsustainable. “The subscription fees for each platform are much higher than they were a few years ago. Sometimes, even if you subscribe to three or four different platforms, you can’t find the old movie or series you’re looking for,” he says. Rindborg admits that this frustration has led him to resort to torrent sites more frequently. He adds that he’s resorting to illegal streaming platforms more frequently than before. He says other film critics share the same tendency.
Rindborg and his circle’s personal experience is also supported by global data. According to reports by MUSO, an analytics company that tracks pirated streaming traffic, visits to pirated sites hit a low of 130 billion in 2020. However, by 2024, this figure has skyrocketed to an alarming 216 billion.
Another study conducted in Sweden further clarifies the seriousness of the situation. By 2024, one in four people in the country reported watching pirated content. This rate is much higher among young people aged 15-24, suggesting that future audiences are returning to this habit.
So, what’s the underlying reason behind this return? A comment made years ago by Valve co-founder Gabe Newell about the gaming world perfectly sums up the current situation: “Piracy isn’t about money, it’s about service.”
Newell’s gaming platform, Steam, revolutionized the fight against piracy by offering users nearly every game they wanted in one place. Similarly, services like Spotify and Apple Music, with their extensive music libraries, have largely eliminated illegal MP3 downloads because users know they can easily find the content they’re looking for on these platforms.
However, the film and TV industry has taken the opposite path. Viewers are forced to navigate between Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, and many other platforms to watch their favorite shows. This creates a fragmented, expensive, and one-off service. How will subscription systems combat piracy?
