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.

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