The top BitTorrent search terms of 2013 will not surprise anyone, but the most popular term just might. On Kickass Torrents, YIFY was the most popular BitTorrent search for 2013 followed by "World War Z" and "Iron Man 3."

TorrentFreak released the "BitTorrent Zeitgeist 2013" featuring the top 50 search terms on Kickass Torrents. YIFY is a movie release group that is among the first to release torrents of new movies. A quick look at Kickass Torrent reveals search terms for "YIFY," "YIFY 1080p," "YIFY 720p" and "YIFY 2013."

YIFY has its own Torrent website, but its releases have populated other BitTorrent sites, including The Pirate Bay, 1337x and Kickass Torrents, and the group has become a trusted source for new content for pirates around the world. Speaking to TorrentFreak, YIFY's founder explains the group's success as a combination of speed and efficiency, providing torrents of new movies in a small file size that can be quickly downloaded. "I personally think that many people are following and downloading YIFY encodes due to the consistency we offer in our releasing. Everything from the consistent film cover art, to the information layout, and ultimately to the file-size of our encodes," YIFY's founder said.

As for how YIFY is able to upload new torrents so quickly, its founder credits leaked Blu-rays from friends, TorrentFreak reported. YIFY's increased popularity has made it a target for the movie industry, but the group's founder believes Hollywood should learn from the success of BitTorrent. Instead of single-item purchases, the industry could focus more on subscription models or new ways to give access to content.

After YIFY, the most popular BitTorrent search terms are for popular movies and television series. "World War Z," starring Brad Pitt, was a huge hit at the box office, earning $540 million worldwide, and it was just as popular as a torrent. The most popular "World War Z" torrent was uploaded by YIFY and features more than 6,000 seeders, the name given to people hosting the file. "Iron Man 3" was the highest grossing movie of the year, according to Box Office Mojo, and it was the third most popular search on Kickass Torrents.

While "Game of Thrones" may be the most pirated television series of 2013, "Breaking Bad" was the most searched series, notes TorrentFreak, and "Man of Steel" rounded out the top five."GoT" finished in seventh place.

An interesting trend in the "BitTorrent Zeitgeist 2013" is the lack of video game, software, music, sports, concert or adult content searches. The "Grand Theft Auto V" torrent only has a few hundred seeders while the "Call of Duty: Ghosts" torrent has just over 2,000 seeders. The only software to make the top 50 was Windows 8, TorrentFreak reported.

That's not to say these torrents are not popular; it's possible the searches may reflect the quality of the download. A new album will have a consistent quality across all torrent files, with even the lowest quality being acceptable to most listeners. Movies run the gamut from Blu-ray quality to shaky camera recordings in theaters, and users may search to find the best quality torrent possible.

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