So you’re saying that the more popular a game is, the more likely it is to be pirated?

Sounds like it has more like the desirability of the game driving piracy than the other way around.

https://xkcd.com/925/ :P

Not only sales, but market share/power. Imagine if J3QQ4... did not work for Windows 98... Linux on Desktop would be already perfect 20 years ago.

Correlation vs. causation: is it that games get pirated get more exposure therefore more sales, or games that are already popular get pirated?

I have to admit I haven't looked at these studies in their original form, but I guess sales revenue per install is the best metric to tell