Fast & Furious 7, replete with its tear-jerking tribute to the late star Paul Walker, broke all box-office records when it was released in India last week. But while many queued up to buy tickets to see O' Connor take 'one last ride' with Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and the gang, many more took to the internet to download the action-packed flick.

The film was downloaded 2.59 million times worldwide on torrent networks in five days, according to a report by piracy-tracking firm Excipio in Variety. But the surprise was in the details: India stood first with 5,78,000 downloads while Pakistan came second with 3,21,000, followed by China with 2,89,000 peer-to-peer torrent downloads.

While these numbers were still rolling in, pirates found a bounty with four episodes of the latest season of popular TV show 'Game of Thrones', leaked a day before it was to premiere on HBO. Over two days, the episodes became the most downloaded files globally, TorrentFreak reported. India was third in this race, behind only the UK and the US.

Indians are usually made to wait for their favourite western shows and movies. For instance, until last year, India had to wait for a week before it could watch the latest episodes of GoT. But even though this has changed, the piracy habit hasn't.

“For Season 5, fans can watch the latest episodes at the same time as the US premiere, ad-free, and in high definition. We believe the move to a simulcast airing of 'Game of Thrones' in 170 countries is going to curb piracy,“ says Monica Tata, managing director, HBO India. But many Indians weren't even aware of the simulcast on HBO Defined or chose not to fork out the premium cost for the channel (Rs 90 on an HD set-top box of Tata Sky).

“Ensuring timely and cost-effective availability of content is an important measure in controlling piracy, along with monitoring and taking down pirate links,“ says Roger Harvey, director, Australia and New Zealand, Irdeto - an antipiracy solutions company.

His argument is backed by a 2014 Irdeto survey conducted among 1,600 adults in Australia, India, Indonesia and Singapore. The results revealed that 34% Indians were tempted to watch pirated content due to lack of availability, and 29% due to pricing concerns.

It comes as no surprise that Indians were sixth in the world when it came to downloading Oscar-nominated movies, most of which were released here months after their US dates. “There's often a delay in the release of much-awaited films. If a free online copy is available right now, why would I wait for months?“ asks Rahul M, a 27-year-old computer engineer in a Gurgaon firm.

The GoT download frenzy wasn't a new trend though. Irdeto recently released global figures for the series which showed a 45% increase in piracy worldwide over 2014. More importantly, India registered a whopping 155% rise in the same period. “For me, it is about convenience. I downloaded all four seasons at the same time and watched them in my free time,“ says Ankita Sen, a 20-year-old college student in Kolkata.