MUSO’s Audience Demand dataset was 5 years old in July, providing unique granular insights into the unlicensed audience demand of TV and film content since 2019.
Audience Demand for TV & Film Titles: five years of STRATEGIC Insights
To celebrate this meta birthday, we decided to look back at some of the trends we’ve observed over the period.
From seasonal spikes to the impact of global events, and the rising popularity of specific genres, this data provides a snapshot of piracy behaviours in the last 5 years. Here’s a look at some of the trends that we saw.
Key Insights and Trends
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Peaks of Unlicensed Demand for Major TV Titles:
Figure 1 shows the top ten most in demand film and TV titles from unlicensed audiences since 2019.
"The Last of Us" Season 1 tops the chart for the most demanded title over the period and experienced a massive surge in demand, accounting for 12% of the top ten titles from downloads and visits to unlicensed streaming sites.
Similarly, "Attack on Titan" Seasons 3 and 4 saw significant spikes in demand, highlighting the anticipation and popularity of these series. These titles experienced distinct peaks in unlicensed demand, correlating with the release dates of popular titles.
Figure 1.
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Consistent High Demand for Popular Titles:
Titles like "One Piece" Season 21 and "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations" Season 1 show sustained demand over multiple years, the latter showing strong demand despite being released in 2017.
This highlights an extremely loyal and dedicated fan base continuously seeking access to these shows, regardless of their official release dates.
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The Impact of Blockbuster Movies:
Avengers: Endgame" and "Spider-Man: No Way Home" were the most in demand film titles from unlicensed audiences since 2019, reflecting the enormous global interest in blockbuster superhero films. These titles saw demand peaks aligning with their theatrical releases, underscoring the pent up demand for immediate access to new movie releases.
Figure 2.
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Seasonal Fluctuations:
From Audience Demand data, we see notable seasonal fluctuations, with many peaks in demand occurring around the end of the year and early in the new year. This trend aligns with the release schedule for major titles and the holiday seasons when audiences have more free time for media consumption.
"The Mandalorian" Season 1 and "House of the Dragon" Season 1 are examples of major titles that exhibited this pattern, with significant spikes in unlicensed demand.
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Rising Demand for Specific Genres:
The data highlights the rising demand for Anime and K dramas, as seen with the presence of "One Piece", "Boruto”, "Attack on Titan" and "Running Man". In fact, Anime titles occupy five of the top seven spots for the most demanded TV titles and five of the top ten combined film and TV titles in the last five years.
This shift reflects a broader trend of increasing global interest in these genres, likely driven by their unique storytelling and cultural appeal.
Top five territories for unlicensed demand since 2019:
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Figure 3.
Top five genres with the highest unlicensed demand since 2019:
Figure 4.
MUSO Audience Demand
MUSO’s Audience Demand dataset provides a snapshot of the dynamic nature of piracy demand for TV and film titles over the past five years.
Over the last five years, Audience Demand has evolved significantly to cover:
- Over 800,000 TV and film titles
- In 196 territories worldwide
- Both Streaming & Torrent data
- Affinity scoring showing how content over or under indexes in demand for key territories.