Pirated Content Popular Since the Filesharing Generation

Millennials who grew up in the heyday of file sharing are most likely to access music or video content illegally in the United States today. But members of Gen Z are almost equally as likely to search out pirated content on the internet. This is the result of a survey by Statista Consumer Insights. Almost half of U.S. respondents in both generations said as of early 2026 that they had accessed content for free that would technically require a subscription or purchase in the past three months.

When illegal downloads and file sharing gave way to illegal streaming over the years, priorities of piraters also shifted. Music piracy became less popular as paid streaming services offer very comprehensive libraries for relatively low monthly subscriptions fees and YouTube also started to offer many popular songs. This doesn't apply to video content in the same way as movies and series continue to be scattered across platforms or confined to pay-per-view models. The advent of streaming also have rise to another phenomenon, live sports piracy, which is believed to be one of the biggest and fastest-growing segments of online piracy today.

Pirating content might be more popular among younger people with fewer financial means, but older generations active in content streaming engage in it too. Among Gen X respondents, this share stood at 27 percent, while only 17 percent of Baby Boomers reported illegal streaming or downloading. The survey polled approximately 3,000 people aged 14 to 98 who had used video or music streaming in the three months prior to the survey. A total of 37 percent of survey participants stated they had accessed paid content without paying.