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Eyebrows were raised this week when Torrentfreak indulged in some New Year’s naughtiness by listing 2011’s most highly torrented games, almost half of which had torrents which exceeded their recorded game sales.
Predictably enough the PC came out on top as the platform most pirated, with every single entry in its top five torrents outstripping the legitimate sales of the titles in question. Leading the pack was Crysis 2 at 3,920,000 downloads, followed by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 at 3,650,000, Battlefield 3 at 3,510,000, Fifa 12 at 3,390,000, and finally Portal 2 at 3,240,000 illegal downloads.
2011 saw the Nintendo Wii as the home console most effected by illegal video game torrents, with Fifa 12 accruing twice the number of torrents as game sales, while Xenoblade Chronicles managed roughly one third as many legitimate game sales as illegal torrents. The list is as follows: Super Mario Galaxy 2 came in at first place with 1,280,000 torrents, followed by Mario Sports Mix at 1,090,000, Xenoblade Chronicle at 950,000, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean at 870,000, and lastlyFifa 12 at 860,000 torrents.
Finally, 2011 saw the Xbox 360 fare much better against piracy than the Nintendo Wii, with all of its top titles outselling their documented torrents. Further, none of the 360′s top torrents managed to crack the one million mark, which is a considerable achievement given that its top three places are home to three of the year’s top multi-million selling franchises. Coming in at number one was Gears of War 3 which amassed 890,000 torrents, followed by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 at 830,000, Battlefield 3 at 760,000, Forza Motorsport 4 at 720,000, and Kinect Sports: Season Two weighing in at 690,000 downloads.
Interestingly, Torrentfreak have stated that they did not supply rankings for the PS3 and other platforms because they did not play host to a significant number of torrents.
