1.7 million Spore pirates break gaming record

Spore has been illegally downloaded 1.7 million times since its release in early September, reportedly setting a new record to become the most pirated game ever.

The figure was among several estimated by TorrentFreak, which reports Spore is the first game to come close to rivalling the number of illegal downloads for movies and TV shows.

The game saw half a million downloads within ten days of its release, due in no small part to controversy surrounding EA’s DRM policy.

Following close behind Spore was The Sims 2, with 1.15 million downloads over the course of the year. Assassins Creed and Crysis have seen 1.07 million and 940,000 downloads respectively, while Command & Conquer 3 has been downloaded 860,000 times since January.

Call of Duty 4 has seen 830,000 downloads while GTA: San Andreas has been pirated 740,000 times this year. Finally, recent releases have already been hit hard, with 645,000 illegal downloads for Fallout 3, 585,000 for Far Cry 2 and 470,000 for PES 2009.