Most pirated films, TV shows and video games by US state is utterly fascinating
Who knew Illinois was so into Italian art films?
A map has been produced of the US states (mainland only) by most torrented films, TV series and video games, showing Illinois to made up of film connoisseurs, the east coast to be oddly obsessed with Californication and everyone to be rather fittingly pirating Watch Dogs.
The research was done by Real Estate website Movoto, which looked at the locations of the top 300 seeding notes for the most popular films, games and TV shows, taking in 3 million unique IP addresses.
The data is surprisingly varied, and though it is not an accurate reflection of tastes in general (shows that are frequently on TV, are on Netflix or are easy to stream are less likely to be torrented for example) it presents a fascinating picture of Americans' downloading habits.
Here they are by entertainment type:
Film
Stay classy Minnesota, out of the thousands of films that have been produced in the last year you want to watch 300: Rise Of An Empire the most.
The state could learn a lot from Illinois, which has been rampantly stealing Paolo Sorrentino's comparatively low budget yet wonderfully luxurious La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), which follows the aging, hedonistic intelligentsia of Rome.
California continues to be obsessed by 12 Years A Slave meanwhile, after giving it an Oscar at the start of 2014, while bible belt state Missouri is obviously still keen to see how faithful Darren Aronofsky's Noah is.
TV shows
As the most pirated show ever, it's unsurprising to find Game of Thrones seeing high levels of torrenting in 15 states, while 24 continues to be a bankable watch in 6 others.
The east coast seems to be intrigued by the west, with Californication being the most popular in North and South Carolina, while Texas and Louisiana show their anxieties through their obsession with Awkward.
California and Utah have arguably the trendiest taste, pirating Fargo the most, while Montana is sadly still distracted by The Big Bang Theory.
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Games
Appropriately for a game about hacking, Watch Dogs is far and away the most pirated video game, topping the list in 21 states.
Sandbox phsyics game Garry's Mod proves surpisingly popular in Texas and Maine, and the landlocked Idaho dreams of oceans as it downloads The Sims 3: Island Paradise.
New Hampshire gets geeky by furiously downloading Minecraft meanwhile, but sadly Goat Simulator isn't top anywhere in the US.
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