Turkish Delights…But Not for Creators? The Untold Story of Piracy

Content piracy is still a major issue today. Fast Company recently reported that, on a global scale, online piracy websites were visited 141 billion times in 2023, which marked a 12% increase since 2019. The Turkish population is a significant contributor to this issue. In 2020, Turkey was the country with the 8th highest rate of software piracy, with 3.9 billion visits to piracy sites in that year alone. As global piracy rates have increased in subsequent years, Turkey’s online piracy rates have almost certainly also risen.

The Demographic Characteristics of Turkish Piracy

Our data reveals that, in Turkey, those aged between 18-24 commit the highest percentage of content piracy at 28%. Gender ratios, on the other hand, show very close results, with 52.11% of males and 47.89% of females engaging in pirated content consumption.*

In terms of socioeconomic status, a significant percentage of these individuals are employed full-time and are either high school graduates or have completed compulsory education. In total, the percentage of those employed full-time is 39%, while the percentage of those who are high school graduates or have completed compulsory education is 49.14%.*

Another significant finding that our research uncovered is that almost all of the people within this demographic do not consider content piracy to be an illegal activity. This is undoubtedly the most worrying fact that we uncovered. The following paragraphs will outline the damage that this causes to all media and Turkey’s oversized contribution to the problem.

Why Global and Turkish Content Piracy Is a Major Issue

Anyone who cares about the health of both the global and Turkish creative industries should consider the impact of the prevalence of piracy. Content piracy is a major drain on the ability for music to be recorded, films to be made, books to be written, games to be developed and much more. Streaming services in the US market alone are projected to lose $113 billion to content piracy by 2027. In 2020, Turkish broadcaster Digiturk claimed that it had lost $84 million to video piracy. This damage to the creative industry threatens the ability for high-quality media to be produced and results in significant job losses.

Turkey’s oversized contribution to the content piracy problem, where globally it has the 18th highest population but the 8th highest movie piracy rates, need to be examined and understood. The following information represents the facts that relate to Turkish content piracy.

Factors Exacerbating Turkish Piracy

Factors such as the pandemic, rising ticket prices and decreased interest in cinema due to content accessed digitally have contributed to increased piracy rates in Turkey. The continuing impact on the cinema industry in particular highlights why Turkish digital piracy is on the rise. In the pre-pandemic period, in 2018, average domestic movies reached a total of 40 million viewers and average foreign movies reached 27 million viewers in cinemas. In the post-pandemic period, in 2022, these numbers decreased to an average of 19 million for domestic movies and 17 million for foreign movies.

Following the increase in interest in consuming digital content during the pandemic and subsequent years, users have not fully regained their previous interest in cinemas, because they can also consume content that they could watch in cinemas through piracy.

This decrease in cinema audiences has resulted in long-term consequences. Between 2018 and 2022, hundreds of cinemas across Turkey permanently closed, which has the potential to further increase piracy rates.

Clearly, anyone with an interest in the global and Turkish entertainment industries should take heed of this information and the threat that it highlights.


*Sherlock data was used, and a list of the pirate sites caught on our radar with the highest search volume within the last year was compiled. The demographic data of these sites' consumers was analyzed through Semrush.