That however hasn't stopped the title achieving another milestone, as the game was recently rated by TorrentFreak as the torrent that resulted in the transfer of the most data, 15.77 Petabytes in all.

 

According to Techspot, the most popular illegal torrent file for Starcraft II has been downloaded an amazing 2.3 million times. TorrentFreak also reported that the total number of pirated copies of the game came to 260 000, making it the most pirated title of 2010.

 

In comparison, legal sales of the game came to 3 million copies by September, with Blizzard selling 1.5 million of these in the first 48 hours after the game's release.

 

It's interesting to note though that users can torrent the game through legal channels as well, as Blizzard uses its own BitTorrent-based client server to distribute legal digital copies to paying customers. In a statement to MCVUK, Blizzard didn't seem too worried about the problem saying, “for World of Warcraft, we have been able to work well around the piracy issue and we think we'll be able to do the same with StarCraft II.”

 

The reason the company may not be as worried is because of the new Battle.net platform. As Starcraft II doesn't support LAN play, users who pirated the game only have access to a watered down version of the single player campaign.

 

With multiplayer being the central focus of the game, it's interesting to note how piracy may have actually inspired some illegal downloaders to buy the game afterwards to gain access to its online multiplayer features, the undisputed heart of the Starcraft series.