Piracy has had a huge effect on the video game industry during the past decade, spurring the creation of extremely tight anti-DRM software such as Denuvo, and discouraging developers who see the hundreds of millions of downloads that piracy websites accumulate every week. However, there might be a bright side.

The European Commission has released a 307 page report that outlines its findings of currently market trends, including investigation of piracy and its effects.

Also Read: Sonic Mania Gets Negative Reviews Because of Denuvo

Among its conclusions were that piracy of games has a positive relationship with increased legal purchases. Page 15 reads:

For games, the estimated effect of illegal online transactions on sales is positive – implying that illegal consumption leads to increased legal consumption. This positive effect of illegal downloads and streams on the sales of games may be explained by the industry being successful in converting illegal users to paying users.

The theory is that there are gamers who pirate games to try out them out, and then consider buying them if they like what they played. In other words, a really complicated way of demoing the product.

As crazy as it sounds, it's quite common among gamers, likely due to the nuances of pirated software, the high cost of games, and the increasing rarity of demos.