These were the top 10 illegally downloaded TV shows in 2015

Once again, "Game of Thrones" is the No. 1 pirated show of the year.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the HBO fantasy drama has topped this list, with a huge 14.4 million downloads on BitTorrent, according to TorrentFreak.

To give you a sense of the show's popularity on piracy websites, there's a difference of eight million downloads between "GoT" and the No. 2 most-downloaded series on the list, "The Walking Dead."

"Game of Thrones" also beat TV's most-watched show, CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," which is in the third-place slot.

Despite the creation of HBONow for non-cable subscribers in the past year, the prominence of "GoT" here is not a big surprise. Earlier this year, it broke an all-time record for illegal downloads when more than 258,131 users shared the same "GoT" torrent file simultaneously.

And according to TorrentFreak, illegal downloads aren't declining at all. They're in fact increasing, many to levels way above the traditional TV audience numbers for programs.

Which other shows have become favorites for illegal downloading? Here's the list of 2015's most-pirated TV shows.