Piracy has shown to increase sales, as those who pirate typically spread the game through word-of-mouth. The latter being anecdotal. >https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_study.pdf
Personally, I have bought several games that I pirate beforehand (albeit on sale). In one case, I bought the sequel to a previously-pirated game at full price when it launched (Shadowrun).
