The Grand Tour is the most pirated TV programme in history

The Grand Tour, the successor to Top Gear and an exclusive for Amazon Prime Instant Video, has become the most illegally downloaded TV programme in history.

Since the programme was launched last November, the first episode has been illegally downloaded 7.9m times. The second was illegally downloaded 6.4m times, while the third reached 4.6m downloads.

Amazon has not yet released official viewing figures for any of the episodes, but these statistics were reported to the Mail on Sunday from piracy data analysts MUSO. Its software monitors the internet for keywords to identify piracy sites and analyses what invidivuals using those sites have watched.

A subscription to Amazon Prime Instant Video costs £6 per month. At £3 less than Netflix, it is currently the cheapest streaming service for 4K content.

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Adam was a staff writer for What Hi-Fi?, reviewing consumer gadgets for online and print publication, as well as researching and producing features and advice pieces on new technology in the hi-fi industry. He has since worked for PC Mag as a contributing editor and is now a science and technology reporter for The Independent.