Modern Warfare 2 is 2009’s most pirated game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 enjoyed critical and commercial success on a grand scale this year, but it also earned a more dubious honor: the most pirated game of 2009.

While the first-person shooter shifted a record-breaking 4.7 million units in its opening 24 hours at retail, the PC version has been downloaded illegally 4.1 million times in the last two months; the game was also the most heavily pirated Xbox 360 title. Obviously, not every unauthorized download equals a lost sale, but it’s still lost Activision a considerable amount of green.

On the Wii, meanwhile, New Super Mario Bros. Wii earned top spot on the chart no game publisher wants to appear on:

PC Game Downloads on BitTorrent in 2009

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (4,100,000 downloads)
2. The Sims 3 (3,200,000)
3. Prototype (2,350,000)
4. Need For Speed Shift (2,100,000)
5. Street Fighter IV (1,850,000)

Xbox 360 Game Downloads on BitTorrent in 2009

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (970,000)
2. Street Fighter IV (840,000)
3. Prototype (810,000)
4. Dirt 2 (790,000)
5. UFC 2009 Undisputed (720,000)

Wii Game Downloads on BitTorrent in 2009

1. New Super Mario Bros. (1,150,000)
2. Punch-Out!! (950,000)
3. Wii Sports Resort (920,000)
4. The House of the Dead: Overkill (860,000)
5. Mario Power Tennis (830,000)

[TorrentFreak, via Joystiq]