And the Most Pirated TV Show of the Year Is...

HBO's "Game of Thrones" is officially the winner of an award that it might not want, three years in a row.

The hit series has been named the most pirated TV series of the year, according to torrent site TorrentFreak. This is the third year in a row that "Game of Thrones" has earned the title of the most illegally downloaded series.

"GoT" earned 8 million downloads of its finale, a number that surpasses even the 7.1 million viewers that tuned in to watch the episode on TV.

Though "The Walking Dead" gets higher ratings on television, it makes sense that "Thrones" would top the torrent list...after all, it is an HBO show, making it that much less accessible to those who choose to cut cable.

In fact, "Thrones" is way ahead of the other names on the list... "The Walking Dead" came in at #2 with 4.8 million downloads, while "The Big Bang Theory" is at #3 with 3.9 million. The recently ended "How I Met Your Mother" is in at #4 with 3.5 million.

Interestingly, a number of readily available shows made the list: "Big Bang" and "HIMYM" are CBS shows, which are often viewable for free with just a digital antenna or free-of-charge digital box. "Arrow," "Gotham" and "Grey's Anatomy" are in the same boat.

All of those shows are also viewable the next day on Hulu Plus, available for a subscription fee of less than $10. "South Park" came in at #10 on the list, which recently put all of its episodes on Hulu but was free to watch on Comedy Central's website before that.

So, while inaccessibility of a show seems to be a factor in piracy, like in the case of "Game of Thrones," we can probably also point to plain ol' laziness as well.